Victorious, the Apocalypse
by SummerMelodies
Summary: Tragedy hits LA and the HA gang are in the middle of it. As the title says, an apocalypse is upon them, and it's up to them to survive. Will they? And what obstacles will they have to overcome to do so? (Rated M because of one chapter only.) (Cori and Bade)
1. Chapter 1

**So, I normally ship Cade... but ya know, I wanted to mix it up a little and do a Cori/Bade ship story for once sooooo yeah.**

 **I've also never actually seen any zombie related movies/ read any zombie books- I just like the idea of them, so if I end up writing the same plot as something that already exists, then I'm not intentionally copying them, I just purely had the same idea as that without knowing that I'm copying. Ennnnjoy:**

 **(Also, I have checked this over, but there's definitely still going to be spelling and grammar errors. Sorry for that.)**

* * *

Around the time after the episode 'Star Spangled Tori':

"Thaaaank yooou guys." Cat beamed at her group of friends as they helped her move all of her things into her new room at her Nonna's apartment. After her parents had moved to Idaho to look after her brother, Cat had no other choice but to move to Venice, California with her Nonna, or otherwise she'd have to live in the school. And believe me, she'd already tried to do that.

"It's all so pink in here." Jade West hissed, covering her eyes like a vampire in sunlight after seeing the walls of her friend's bedroom.

"I like pink though." Cat smiled childishly at her friend, despite the goth's sour attitude. "It's such a happy colour."

"I hate happy." Jade snarled at the bouncing girl.

"We know Jade." Tori announced, placing down a large box of Cat's close. "We _all_ know."

"I'm exhausted." Robbie said, collapsing onto the floor after helping Andre carry in a large set of draws into the room.

"It wasn't even that heavy." Andre said to the curly haired boy, pulling him back to his feet.

"Let's take a break anyway." Beck suggested. "You got any food here Cat?"

"Yup yup!" Cat beamed at him, "It's in the kitchen, my Nonna said we could eat whatever while she's out. Anything you want guys?"

"You got chips and dip?" Andre spoke up, rubbing his hands together.

"I think so." Cat replied, furrowing her brows in thought, "I'll go check." She skipped out of the bright pink room and into the more normally coloured hallway which lead towards the kitchen.

"What's this?" Jade spoke up as she walked to the back wall of the bedroom, noticing the large safe in the empty closet.

"Looks like a safe." Robbie spoke up, adjusting his glasses.

"No chiz." Andre replied sarcastically.

"Hey Cat!" Beck yelled to his red-headed friend, who quickly re-appeared with Andre's requested drip and chips.

"Whattie?" She asked sweetly, tilting her head to the side like a Puppy.

"What's in this safe?" Beck asked, nodding to the safe which his girlfriend was stood beside.

"I dunno." Cat replied, handing Andre the chips and dip. "It was there when my Nonna moved in."

"What's the combination?" Tori asked.

"Don't need it." Jade announced, after typing in a pass code which made the large safe door swing open.

"How did you-?" Beck started to ask, being cut off by himself as realised he didn't want to know how his girlfriend knew how to unlock a safe in only a few attempts.

"What's in there?" Cat asked the goth.

"Anyone got a flashlight?" Jade asked, ignoring the redhead.

"No." Robbie replied. "-Wait yeah." He pulled a large flashlight out of the back of his pants, making the group give him a strange look as he handed it to the goth.

"It looks like a passage way." Jade said, pointing the light into the safe. "It looks like it goes back a few feet." She said, pushing herself up onto all fours and crawling down the tunnel.

"Wait, I wanna come!" Cat announced, jumping into the passage and following the goth through.

At the end of the passage, there was a metal crate which Jade easily kicked out of way to reveal a large blue and white room. "This is pretty cool." Jade admired as she climbed out the other side.

"Help me down." Cat pleaded, sticking her feet out of the end of the tunnel.

"Yeah sure." Jade replied lazily, pretending to help the smaller girl, not really noticing when she fell onto the dusty ground.

"It's dark." Cat said, after finding her way too her feet. "Oh look." She reached up to pull a small string which was attached to a light bulb.

"What's going on?" Tori called down from the other side of the passage way.

"We found a small room!" Cat called back, her voice echoing slightly as it travelled.

"A room?" Andre asked, "What's in it?"

"Um. Some food, some water and a rope." Jade called back.

"Wow!" Cat beamed. "We could open a food, water, and rope shop!"

"Yes." Jade repleted sarcastically, turning to face the redhead. "The perfect store for hungry, thirsty, rope lovers."

"We're coming though." Robbie said, climbing along the passage way.

"Ugggh why?" Jade moaned.

"You're right." Robbie commented as he, Beck, Tori and Andre climbed out of the other side. "A small room."

"I wasn't lying." Cat giggled. "I'm not a fibber."

"This seems like it's some sort of hideout." Tori said, picking up one of the cans of soup.

"Kinda dusty." Robbie said, flicking one of the large wall-covering cobwebs.

"AH!" Cat squealed. "That means there's spiders!"

"Oh shush." Jade silenced the girl. "Spiders are cute."

"No they aren't!" Cat squealed again, climbing into the passageway and scrambling out of the safe and back into her bedroom.

* * *

A few hours later.

After moving all of Cat's stuff into her room, the gang took a much needed rest in Cat's kitchen/ lounge area, with the television on in the background. They didn't even know what they were watching it because none of them were actually following the plot-line. Instead they just all sat there next to the packets of various junk food, eyes resting back on the flickering screen for brief moments of distraction.

"I think it's time we all leave now Cat." Robbie suggested, looking at the time on his PearPhone. "Before traffic gets bad."

"But my Nonna isn't back yet." Cat looked sadly at her feet.

"You're gonna have to get-." Jade started, before an ear-piercing high pitch sound erupted in the room and the television show suddenly shut off and flashed to a pure black screen.

"BREAKING NEWS!" Bright red text covered the screen, along with a large danger symbol. "RADIOACTIVE BLAST COVERING SOUTH WEST. ALL CITIZENS MUST TAKE COVER FAST IN ANY AIRTIGHT ROOMS!"

"What the hell?!" Jade screamed, reading the message off of the screen.

"Everyone in the safe room!" Beck announced, grabbing his girlfriend's wrist and dragging her to Cat's bedroom.

"Grab anything you can." Tori yelled as they ran, grabbing various things such as blankets, pillows, toilet paper and a box of Cat's clothes, then throwing it down the tunnel and into the safe room.

"What use will a toy be in there Cat?!" Jade screamed at the redhead, as she saw her clutching a purple giraffe.

"Leave it Jade." Beck said back quickly, rounding up everyone into the safe tunnel.

Once everyone was inside, Beck was in the safe tunnel, trying to close the metal door. "There's a green gas filling the bedroom." He yelled, eventually pulling it shut and shuffling backwards along the tunnel and into the safe.

Now they were trapped. No way out. They're eyes all darted around the room to search for something, anything, a crevice, a seal, but the walls are a dull surface. There was no door, there were no odours and the blackness was absolute, not a trace of light anywhere. Their prison was a perfect cube, the corners just reachable if arms were extend like a starfish. However, trapped in this room was a better fate than being stuck out there with the potentially deadly green gas.

"We'll be okay." Robbie said calmly. "The TV said 'radioactive' the most dangerous radioactive particles are Alpha, and they wouldn't be able to pass though the safe due to-."

"Now is not the time for a science lesson Robbie!" Tori snapped, silencing the boy.

"Do you think it's deadly?" Cat whimpered, pulling her stuffed giraffe close to her body and pulling her knees to her chest against the corner of the room.

"From the sense of urgency from the TV, I'd say probably." Andre gulped honestly.

"Maybe it'll turn people into zombies or something." Jade laughed manically.

"That's not funny." Cat mumbled. "You could be right."

Jade's face dropped, realising that the red-head was right. This was the perfect situation for an apocalypse.

"Maybe there's something on the internet." Robbie suggested, pulling out his Pear Phone and clicking on the news app. "Nope, nothing."

"Try again in about an hour." Andre spoke up. "There probably hasn't been time for people to write up reports yet."

"I'm scared." Cat cried, hugging her giraffe closer to her.

"We all are Cat." Tori said shakily, rubbing the small girl's back. "But we'll be okay."


	2. Chapter 2

About an hour later:

After playing various strange acting games to try and forget about what was happening outside.

"Guys." Robbie spoke up.

"What?" Jade snapped.

"I need to pee." Robbie gulped.

"Hold it." Jade said back.

"For how long?" Robbie replied hastily, crossing his legs. "We could be in here weeks."

"Weeks?" Cat squeaked.

"Oh just pee in this." Tori shoved an empty can towards the curly haired boy.

"In a can?" Robbie looked appalled by the situation.

"You wanna go out there and face that green gas?" Beck said.

Instead of replying, Robbie turned away and pulled down his zipper. "Wait!" Tori yelled. "I've found something on the news." She spun her PearPhone to the rest of the group.

"' _Real life apocalypse?_ '" Jade read out, snatching Tori's phone away from her. "' _After an experiment in the Nevada desert went wrong, an explosion of thick, green radioactive gas was sent into the air. The gas spread across the south-west, covering most of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and thousands of homes within the hour. The further from the testing sight, the thinner the cloud, but nevertheless still as harmful_.'" The news article said. "' _Reports from those outside of the gas field claimed that they saw zombie-like humans emerging from the cloud. Citizens around the gas zone are being told to vacate their homes and move towards the East Coast immediately, and everyone inside the gas area is presumed dead or 'infected'_." Jade finished reading, all this information being too much for even her to bare.

Seeing his girlfriend's distress, Beck took the phone and continued to read the article. "' _Armed Forces have been sent to scout the area via helicopters. The gas seems to be already clearing and would be breathable within the next week, though due to 'infected' people, returning would not be advice to anyone. An official statement from the Government is that the area will be sectioned off and left alone until the 'infected' can be dealt with._ '"

"Dealt with?" Andre replied, shakily.

"Killed is my guess." Beck said bluntly, running a hand through his hair nervously.

"Do you think anyone would come and find us?" Cat spoke up suddenly, her voice wavering.

"I'm not so sure Cat." Beck replied honestly. "But for now, we've got everything we need in here." He motioned to the various things around the room that they'd shoved into there during the panic from an hour ago.

"What do we have?" Tori asked, looking at the strange array of stuff they'd grabbed.

"It's from Cat's room." Andre said. "It could be anything."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cat yelled suddenly.

"Nothin Lil' Red." Andre tried to recover.

"Kay kay." Cat replied, her voice back to her calm and normal one, emphasising her drastic mood swings.

"Who threw in a box of Cat's clothes?" Jade asked after pulling open the cardboard box. "They'll literally only be able to fit her."

"I did." Said Tori. "It was labelled 'large hoodies'. I thought maybe they'd fit." She muttered.

"Oooh yay." Cat beamed, pulling clothes out of the box. "I love these things, I only wear them around the house though."

"Wait." Robbie said, picking up one of the hoodies. "This is one of mine."

"Oh yeah." Cat giggled. "So it is."

"How the hell do these fit you?" Jade asked, holding one of Cat's hoodies up against Beck. "He's 5ft 10 and it looks like it'll fit him normally."

"I wear them like a dress." Cat giggled, throwing one of the hoodies over her petite frame, it was long enough for the hem to hit her knees.

"I take it back Vega, good idea grabbing this." Jade said.

"Thanks ." Tori smiled slightly at the rare complement from the goth.

"What else we got?" Jade moved on quickly, grabbing the blanket off of the floor. "I'm using this for the night." She commanded, ignoring the annoyed looks from the rest of them. "What? I'll be sharing with Beck so it makes sense."

"Alright, fine." Tori rolled her eyes. "I get this pillow though." She grabbed the fluffiest pillow from the pile of 4 that had been thrown in there.

* * *

That Night

Tori POV

There isn't a person alive who doesn't fear being closed in, fear being trapped in darkness, fear the monsters who cage us with fear itself. There isn't a person alive who doesn't love the light of a warm sun upon their face, love the breeze in long grasses, love the sight of new blooms. There is always a fire in our hearts burning for the open air, freedom, the ability to dance in any way we wish. Claustrophobia isn't rare, it's ubiquitous, it's just a matter of the degree you feel it. I feel it really badly, loathing the idea of not being able to escape.

It felt like the walls were closing in on me as I forced myself to close my eyes in an attempt to welcome sleep. I felt like I couldn't breathe- what if I run out of oxygen? My heart rate began to speed up, and so did my breathing.

No POV

"Tori?" Cat whispered to the brunette girl who, like her, was curled up in one of Cat's massive hoodies with her head resting on a pillow.

"Yeah." Tori replied, her heart-rate still beating 50 miles an hour.

"I'm really scared." The redhead cried out.

"Me too Cat." Tori said back, trying to calm herself down. "We're just super lucky we found this safe which somehow stopped the gas from coming in."

"Yeah, lucky." Cat said darkly. "Everyone we know and love are dead or 'infected'."

"Wow." Tori breathed, shocked at the girls drastic out-of-character comment. "They might have got out of it... like we did." She huddled closer to the redhead and laid her arms over the girl's frame in a comforting way. "It'll be okay Cat."

"Thank you Tori." Cat mumbled, huddling against the half-Latina's body. "You're the best."

" _Just close your eyes, the sun is going down_ " Tori began whisper-singing the chorus of the Taylor Swift song 'Safe and Sound'

Y _ou'll be alright, no one can hurt you now_

 _Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound."_

 _"Don't you dare look out your window, darling everything's on fire"_ Cat snuggled even closer to the half-latina as she sung.

 _The war outside our door keeps raging on_

 _Hold onto this lullaby even when the musics gone, gone_

 _Just close your eyes, the sun is going down_

 _You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now_

 _Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound_

 _Just close your eyes, you'll be alright_

 _Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound."_

As she finished, Tori noticed Cat's breathing had softened and a small snore was coming from her mouth. Slowly she herself closer her eyes, and joined her friend in a peaceful slumber.

* * *

"Well well well." Jade West smirked, looming over the two girls the next morning. "Look what we have here."

"What're you on about Babe?" Beck asking, slowly sitting up from the floor bed which he was sharing with her before she'd gotten up.

"Look at Cat and Tori." She replied, her loud talking waking Robbie, but somehow the girls both still slept, along with Andre.

"Morning." Robbie yawned, stretching out his arms and clicking his back as he sat up from the floor. "What's happened?"

"Awe." Beck said, standing up and seeing Cat wrapped in Tori's arms. "Cat was probably scared in the night."

"Yeah right." Jade rolled her eyes and then loudly screamed in an attempt to wake them.

"AH!" Andre yelled, quickly jumping up to his feet at his rude awakening. "What? Why? Where?" He stuttered, looking around for the cause of the scream to see Jade West pulling her famous evil smirk. "Argh Jade."

"Jade?" Tori asked, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Why did you scream?"

"To wake you."

"Well thanks." Tori replied sarcastically. "Why're you all looking at me?"

"Hi hi." Cat said, looking around the roof from her place beside Tori. "Did someone scream?"

"No." Jade lied. "Did you two have a nice sleep?" She smirked.

"Yes I- wait." Tori stopped herself. "Why are you being nice suddenly?"

"She was pointing out that you two were cuddled up super close I think." Robbie commented.

"I was scared." Cat said innocently.

"See, told you." Beck pointed out.

"What did you think was happening?" Tori said, shock in her voice.

"You tell me Vega." Jade raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing was going on!" Tori yelled, standing up to confront Jade.

"I was just scared." Cat replied, now sat upright but not standing.

"Let's eat." Andre moved one of the large food cans into the centre of the floor in an attempt to change the subject.

"'Mango Slices'?" Tori read off of the can, noting Andre's attempts. "I'm up for mango."

"Oooh." Cat clapped happily. "I love mango."

* * *

A while later

"Aaaannnnd I'm bored." Tori sighed, slumping against the wall of the room.

"Bored, bored, bored, bored." Cat added.

"Can't be anymore bored." Beck commented.

"Don't think you can be." Jade cut in, sensing the pattern.

"Each of those started with the next alphabetical letter." Robbie noted.

"Funny." Andre replied.

"Game of Alphabet Improv?" Tori asked.

"How about no." Jade said.

"Ironic, you still continued the theme." Andre pointed out.

"Jee, I didn't notice." Jade replied sarcastically.

"Can't you-" Cat started before realising 'cant' didn't start with a 'K'. "Oh, I'm out, keep going."

"Kay kay." Robbie replied, using Cat's own catchphrase against her.

"Let's see how long we can keep this going." Tori said.

"Might be forever." Beck replied.

"Only until- Oh damn it!" Robbie said, slumping to the floor dramatically at his mistake.

"Not possible, if two people are already out." Tori continued the game.

"Oh yeah."

"Pessimistic." Jade snapped.

"Queen." Andre said suddenly, frantically searching for a Q word.

"Random." Beck said sceptically.

"I'm out. This is boring." Jade said.

"Same here." Tori said. "Wait, that wasn't meant to start with an 'S'."

"How long are we going to stay in here?" Jade groaned, already bored of staying in the room.

"The news report said it seems like the air will be breathable in a week." Robbie reminded.

"And then what are we planning on doing?" Andre asked. "If you'd forgotten, there are 'infected' people everywhere."

"We're going to have to set up base somewhere, like a supermarket." Beck suggested. "Then make a plan from there, maybe try to escape and go to the East Coast."

"I doubt we'll be accepted with open arms, they'll probably think we're infected." Tori pointed out. "It wouldn't surprise me if we were killed so soon as we're seen trying to escape."

"Killed?" Cat squealed, huddling her body closer to Tori's in fear, making Jade raise an eyebrow at them.

"We'll be fine Cat." Tori stroked the girl's red head comfortingly, ignoring the goth's judgement. "We've just got to be smart about it."


	3. Chapter 3

A few days later.

"I'M GOING INSANE!" Jade screamed for the millionth time since they climbed into the safe room 4 days before.

"We know Jade, stop saying it." Robbie snapped back.

"What did you say Shapiro?"

"Oh shut up Jade!" Cat yelled, slightly shocking the group. "Please." She added as an afterthought.

"You wanna say that again Valentine?" Jade snapped back, walking slowly towards the red-head.

"Nope nope." Beck stuttered out, standing between the two girls. "No fighting, and stop using people's last names Jade."

"I'm sorry Jadey." Cat apologised to her friend, looking sadly at her feet.

"Good." Jade replied harshly.

"Jade." Beck pressed.

"Sorry Cat." Jade had to resist rolling her eyes.

"Yay." Cat said, less enthusiastically than normal, but who could blame her. They'd been stuck in an dusty, empty room for over half a week and they were all getting cranky. The amount of food and water was dwindling, and the smell coming from the 'pee can' was getting dramatically worse each day... for obvious reasons.

"We need to get out today." Tori spoke up.

"We're not even sure if the air's breathable." Tori pointed out. "Besides, maybe it's safer in here, Surviving out there would be no picnic."

"You want to test it?" Jade suggested. "Go outside and test it."

"I'm so tired of all this, in all honesty I'd rather take my chances out there." Tori said, turning to climb though the tunnel.

"Tori no." Cat yelled, pulling her back.

"I'll go." Andre offered.

"That's not the point." Jade rolled her eyes. "I was trying to send Tori out there."

"And we're all ignoring that." Andre said back, climbing though the tunnel and ramming the door open with his body.

"Is there gas?" Beck called down.

"The- caaggahgsh." Andre grasped his throat and started frantically coughing.

"Andre!" Cat screamed, attempting to go after him, but being pulled back by Tori.

"I'm kidding." Andre called back, chuckling to himself. "It seems fine."

"Thank God." Robbie announced, catching Tori and Cat in the corner of his eye. "You two okay there?"

"What?" Tori asked, from her position tightly holding Cat to her body. "Oh right." She spoke up before releasing Cat.

"You all coming?" Andre called back.

"Yeah sure." Jade replied, crawling along the tunnel towards him, followed by the others.

"Woah." Beck said, looking out of the bedroom window to see a deserted LA. Abandoned and ruined cars covered the streets. Windows were broken and doors battered in, a telephone pole had fallen right outside Cat's window, narrowly missing her apartment complex. There was a strange ominous grey to everything too, despite the fact it was mid-day. "There's bodies on the roads." He gulped, his eyes darting to the green-tinted bodies laying across the road and inside the deserted vehicles.

"Look." Tori gasped, pointing at the green-tinted humanoid which was dragging itself across the road outside. As she stole a glance at it's face she saw something horrific. The sight could have turned her to stone. It's snake-like emerald green eyes darted back to her, it's rotting lips were already half destroyed. The noise of bones crack as his neck turned was sickening, and then a blood curdling moan escaped it's lips. It spotted them. And all that was stopping it was a single wall, and who knows how helpful that would be, for all they knew those zombies could have super strength.

"We need a quick plan." Andre spoke up quickly, also seeing the zombie.

"All get into Beck's car, drive to Wankos and camp out. Wankos will have everything we need, including security." Jade said quickly, blurting out the first plan that came to her mind.

"That's the best we've got." Andre replied. "To be safe, everyone cover your mouths as we run to his car. You got your key Beck?"

"Yep." Beck said, taking the car key out of his back pocket. "What's the fastest way to get there Cat?" He asked.

"Though the glass door in the kitchen." Cat said quickly. "It leads the the parking lot."

"Come on then." Andre lead the group, covering his mouth with the cuff of his sleeve.

The group raced though back passage from Cat's apartment, swerving left and right when the path called for it. Their hearts all beating frantically as they propelled themselves forward and towards Beck's car, unsure how long they had before an infected would spot them and chase them down.

Once they finally reached the car, they all bundled inside quickly. Beck in the driver's seat, Jade in the passenger and the other four crammed in the back three seats. "Go go go" Tori yelled, seeing a green-tinted being slowly approach the car. Beck slammed his foot into the accelerator and frantically drove out of the parking lot.

"Anyone know the way to Wankos?" Beck said, swerving in and out of the abandoned cars which littered the deserted roads.

"Left here." Cat said, and Beck turned. "Then right." He turned again, narrowly missing another abandoned car. "Then -swerve!" She screamed as Beck collided head on with a zombie, knocking it flat to the ground and under the car, making it jump twice as the wheels climbed over the zombie's body, once for the front wheels and a second time for the back.

"They aren't people anymore Cat." Jade replied, her knuckles turning white with the grip she had on the sides of her seat. "We have to kill them."

"L...left here." Cat stuttered out, trying to clear her mind. "Then off on the slip road."

"Thanks." Beck said simply trying to concentrate on not crashing the car into something.

"Won't Wanko's be looted already"? Robbie suddenly spoke up.

"Shouldn't be." Andre said back. "What use would zombies have for anything in Wankos?"

"I meant by others like us."

"How many other people do you know who have a safe room?" Jade shot back. "We're probably the only people alive in an 100 mile radius."

"So we're going to classify the infected as 'dead?"

"Undead." Beck clarified. "It'll be easier on your conscience when we have to fight."

"Shit." Jade said suddenly. "There will be zombies inside, they would have been hit by the cloud during their work shift or while shopping."

"I didn't think of that." Beck gulped.

"I've got my scissors at least." Jade said, pulling out the pair she kept in her boyfriend's car.

"And I've got a baseball bat in the trunk." Beck remembered.

"We're gonna have to run for it." Andre spoke up.

"I'll get close to the entrance." Beck replied, racing the car across the Wanko car park and pulling it to a halt by the entrance.

"The glass door is smashed." Robbie pointed out.

"We'll set up the security once we're inside, that'll keep anything out." Andre said, climbing out of the car and getting Beck's bat out of the trunk. "Stay close." He told the rest of the group, climbing though the reminiscence of the glass door.

"Ah!" Tori flinched her hand towards her body. "I cut my hand on the glass."

"That's not our biggest problem right now." Jade said, nodding to the two zombies stood in front of them.

"What do we do?" Cat squeaked as the zombies wandered closer.

"Stay back." Jade told the red-head, throwing her scissors into one of the zombie's heads, knocking it to the ground. Andre ran towards the other and started swinging the bat, hitting the zombie in the head and knocking it clean off.

"Keep going." Beck commanded, leading the group along.

"But my scissors-"

"You can get more." As Beck spoke, they passed into the sales section of the shop and automatically ran towards the shelve of bats and hockey sticks on display. "Grab one and scout the place out. Call out if you need help." The group split into pairs. Tori and Cat, Jade and Beck, and Robbie and Andre, each going down a different isle.

"Ahhhh!" Cat yelled, running towards a zombie down her isle and swinging the bat into it's skull in a very out-of character fashion. But then again, no ones ever really seen Cat in her fight or flight mode, so this could be an in-charter response.

"YOU OKAY CAT?" Robbie called out from the next isle.

"SHE GOT IT!" Tori yelled back, following Cat down another isle to check for anymore zombies.

"I'm scared Andre." Robbie said to his isle partner.

"We just heard Cat kill a zombie, you're -DUCK!" He screamed suddenly, making the curly haired boy drop to the ground as Andre grabbed a glass off of the sales shelf beside him and threw it at the zombie behind Robbie. Robbie kicked out the zombies's legs as the glass smashed into it's face. The double impact killing it instantly.

* * *

"Is that all of them?" Beck asked the group and he and the other boys hauled the 6 zombie corpses out of the store.

"That's all we could find." Jade spoke up.

"I'll set up the security then." Robbie said, walking toward the security control panel and tapping a few buttons. Metal shutters covered the doors and the outdoor alarm system was now set up.

"Lucky we still have electri-" Tori started before all the lights cut out, leaving the only light in the room coming from windows in the ceiling.

"Well done Vega." Jade snapped.

"What- I didn't do anything, it was just bad timing." Tori stuttered.

"Luckily, we got the security set up first." Robbie sighed, running a hand though his curly hair. "Let's get everything sorted in here now though."

"I saw some camping stuff in one of the isles." Tori pointed out. "We could set up blow-up beds and used blankets and pillows from the decor section to make beds."

"That's not a half bad idea Vega." Jade said, leading the group back to the store section.

"We also need to move all the meat and stuff into one freezer and fill it with ice." Robbie pointed out. "Without electricity it'll all go out of date."

"There's also food that's probably already out- like fruit. We'll need to separate the in date stuff from the outdated stuff." Tori added.

"How are we going to cook it ?" Cat asked innocently.

"The old fashioned way- kinda." Andre said. "There's gotta be gas BBQs in here somewhere. Wankos has everything."

"I'm looking forward to putting on some new clothes and brushing my teeth." Beck said. "I stink."

"Here's the plan." Jade commanded. "Beck's right- we do stink. So first of all, we're going to the clothing part of this store and getting new things to wear. Then we'll do the food thing Robbie was on about. Then beds. Is that clear?" She snapped.

"Ma'am yes ma'am." Cat jokingly saluted like a solider at her friend's bossiness.

"Oh come on then." Jade rolled her eyes and grabbed the red-heads arm, dragging her over to the 'women's clothes' section of the store.

"This dress is cute." Cat giggled, picking a small pink dress off of the wrack.

"Cat-" Tori said, "-I don't know how long we're going to be here, you need to wear something that you could run and fight in."

"Oh right." Cat pouted, putting the dress back. "So gym clothes?"

"Yeah, sure." Tori said. "That's a decent idea."

"Hehe yay." Cat giggled, moving along the clothing section towards the gym clothes.

* * *

A change of clothes later, and after dumping a truck load of rotten food into an empty storeroom, the gang started the set up various section of the store. Starting with the sleeping area, where they laid out 6 air beds along the end isle and covered them in pillows and blankets for each of them to sleep in. The next isle over was their cooking situation, where all the BBQs were put together and set up along with a makeshift dining table made of boxes and camping chairs. The clothing section had been split, each member filling a few racks with the clothes that fitted for them to wear during their time staying there. They had even unboxed all of the sports toys to pass the time. Jade used a pair of scissors from the kitchen section to cut a hole though the bottom of a bin, and hung it up on a high shelve as a makeshift basketball hoop.

"This sure is fun for a zombie apocalypse." Andre joked as he spun the basketball on his index finger.

"Gotta make the most of it until our demises." Jade replied darkly.

"Demises?" Cat asked, from her position on the floor playing with a bunch of stuffed animals from the toy isle. "What does that mean?"

"Escape." Tori lied.

"Why would we escape?" She asked innocently. "It's fun in here."

"Escape the zombies." Tori clarified.

"Oh." Cat replied sourly. "They aren't so fun."

"Kobe!" Andre said the famous players name before shooting the ball into the hung up bin.

"We do have a pretty good setup here though." Beck pointed out. "We have everything from clothes to cutlery."

"Much better than that manky old safe room." Jade said.

"At least it kept us alive." Beck pointed out, picking up the basketball that rolled to his feet and attempting a shoot into the bin.

"My go." Tori ran forward and grabbed the ball before walking a few metres back and taking a 3 pointer shot, and getting it into the bucket.

"You're good at basketball?" Andre asked, his mouth slightly agape.

"I was on the team in my old school." She said proudly.

"Learn something new everyday." Beck shrugged, picking up the ball and taking another shot.

"I think I'm going to look around the place a little more to see if I can find anything else." Tori said, turning to walk away.

"I'll go with you." Jade offered.

"Really?"

"I wanted to check out the kitchen scissors a little more." Jade shrugged. "Plus I can throw you to the zombies if we get attacked."

"Don't joke about that." Tori shivered, walking away with the goth anyway.

"You sure you don't wanna join us playing basketball Cat?" Robbie asked the red-head.

"I'm happy here." She replied, content with playing with the stuffed animals that she surrounded herself with.


	4. Chapter 4

That night

"This is much comfier than the floor in the saferoom." Robbie commented, spreading out across his airbed.

"You're telling me." Jade spoke up, cuddling close against her boyfriend on their double-airbed.

"It wasn't that bad." Cat giggled.

"Cause you got all close with Vega every night." Jade pointed out smirking. "Even your airbeds are right next to each other." She motioned to how the two girls had put their air beds only a few inches away from each other.

"Leave it babe." Beck said in a sleepy state.

"Alright." Jade sighed. "So who's keeping guard first?"

"I'll do it for a while." Andre spoke up. "I'm not too tired."

"You know." Robbie said randomly. "For a while there- I forgot about everything going on outside."

"Same here." Tori added. "It felt like a camping trip or something."

"Or one of Sikowitz's weird acting exercises."

"Well that's not the case." Jade interrupted. "This is the end."

"Not necessarily." Beck said calmly. "But if it is, we'll stand tall and face it together."

"That reminds me of a song." Andre spoke up.

"Me too." Robbie replied.

" _This is the end_

 _Hold your breath and count to ten"_ Tori started to sing the first lines of the Adele song which the boys were thinking of.

 _"Feel the earth move and then_

 _Hear my heart burst again _"__ Andre joined in.

 _For this is the end._

 _I've drowned and dreamt this moment."_ Jade started to sing with them.

 _So overdue I owe them_

 _Swept away, I'm stolen_

 _Let the sky fall."_ Cat and Robbie finally joined, adding to the volume of the song.

 _"When it crumbles_

 _We will stand tall_

 _Face it all together_

 _Let the sky fall."_ Beck joined in, his voice quite but still clear and in pitch.

 _"When it crumbles_

 _We will stand tall_

 _Face it all together"_

 _"At skyfall_.

 _At skyfall."_ Cat sung this part higher than the rest, to give an octave harmony

 _"Skyfall is where we start_

 _A thousand miles and poles apart_

 _Where worlds collide and days are dark_

 _You may have my number, you can take my name_

 _But you'll never have my heart_

 _Let the sky fall_

 _[When it crumbles_

 _We will stand tall_

 _Face it all together_

 _Let the sky fall_

 _When it crumbles_

 _We will stand tall_

 _Face it all together_

 _At skyfall"_ The group, except Tori, sung.

 _"Where you go I go._

 _What you see I see_

 _I know_ _I'd never be me_

 _Without the security_

 _Of your loving arms_

 _Keeping me from harm_

 _Put your hand in my hand_

 _And we'll stand."_ Tori sung a solo part, before the group joined back in again for the final chorus.

 _"Let the sky fall_

 _When it crumbles_

 _We will stand tall_

 _Face it all together_

 _Let the sky fall_

 _When it crumbles_

 _We will stand tall_

 _Face it all together_

 _At skyfall_

 _Let the sky fall_

 _We will stand tall"_

 _"At skyfall."_ Tori finished the last line solo.

"That was... nice." Jade said sincerely.

"We haven't sung together in ages." Cat piped up, giggling and clapping her hands in a child-like manner.

"And that's how you change the mood back to happy, Cat." Robbie chuckled at the girl's antics.

"She's good at that." Tori spoke up. "I can practically hear you smirking Jade, stop it."

"I like being proved right." Jade shrugged.

"You aren't being-."

"Night guys." Beck cut in, trying to stop an oncoming argument.

"Nighty night." Cat spoke up, curling up on her airbed.

"Wake me when you get tired for my shift Andre." Robbie said to the boy on 'guard'.

"Will do."

* * *

A few hours later Andre Harris was the only one awake still, rotating the flashlight around the room periodically to check for any oncoming zombies. A sudden loud bang suddenly made the boy jump back in his place and then scramble to his feet to wake his curly haired friend in the airbed to his left. "Robbie wake up!" Andre whisper yelled to the boy, shaking him awake.

"Is it my shift?" Robbie yawned, sitting upright in his airbed.

"No." Andre replied, turning and waking up the rest of the group.

"I swear." Jade snarled, angry over being woken up. "This better be important."

"I hear someone trying to get in." Andre shot back, and as if on queue, there was another loud bang.

"Sounds like they're trying to get through the metal shutters." Beck said, jumping off of his airbed and grabbing a bat. "We'll go and see what it is. The rest of you wait here."

* * *

With Andre and Beck

"Why'd we have to go?" Andre said shakily, running with Beck towards the entrance.

"Don't be a chicken." Beck shot back, sprinting towards the shutters to hear more bangs and see dents across the metal. "WHO'S OUT THERE?"

"Beck, it's gonna be a zombie, they can't-"

"People!" A deep voice replied from the other side of the wall. "Thank God! Can you let me in? I've been running-"

"How do we know you aren't an infected?" Beck yelled back though the shutter.

"The infected can't talk!" The voice yelled back. "Please, I've been running all day. Let me in!"

"We can't lift the shutters, no electricity. But there is a back entrance that's only being blocked by tables and stuff." Beck said.

"Beck, can we trust this guys to not kill us or something?" Andre whispered to Beck.

"We have to help him and if he's made it this far then he must be smart." He said back, before yelling to the man outside. "Go round the back of the store, there's a wooden fire door on the right side. Meet us there."

"Thank you so much!" The voice yelled back, the sound of footsteps told the boys of his departure. They ran to the back of the store and into the old staff room, moved the table and fridge out of the way of the heavy wooden door and opened it up for the unknown person. "You two are lifesavers." The man said, rushing into the room and helping the boys move all the future back. "I'm Dean by the way, Dean Malfis." The tall, bulky man stuck out a hand towards the boys.

"Beck Oliver and Andre Harris." Beck introduced them and shaking his hand.

"If you don't mind me asking. How'd you survive all this?" The man asked the teens, out of breath from running.

"Our friend has a saferoom, we left it this morning to come here." Andre explained simply. "How about you?"

"I'm in the army you see." Dean explained, motioning to army camouflage trousers and white vest (this also explained the short haircut and why he was in shape). "I was with some of my men in the training room when my general sent us all into the bunker - there was only enough room for a few of us in there though so most of the men didn't make it inside. We camped in there for 2 days and then tried to leave but the air wasn't fully breathable yet. Only I was still inside the bunker when we realised, but by now the others had all been changed. It was horrid- first they fell to the ground gasping for air, then their skin started to change to this awful green tinge." He visibly paled at the memory. "I ran out of food today and decided to make a run for it. I remembered this place and thought I'd be the only one alive to use it, but obviously not."

"There are 4 others in the store." Andre said, leading them out of the staff room and towards their 'camp'. "Three girls and a boy, all our age. We've set ourselves up quite well here with food and such."

"Once again, thank you for letting me in. I'd probably be dead otherwise."

"We need someone else to fight in all honesty. We're planning on making a break for the East Coast at some point." Beck explained.

"That'll be harder than you think." Dean said. "In the bunker I had a radio connection to other soldiers. They said they couldn't come and get me or anyone else 'cause it's too much of a danger. They're leaving the zombies to take over here and hopefully kill themselves out, just bordering it off and killing any that try to go past the border. It'll be likely that they think you're zombies and shoot you."

"I'd rather die a free man than live in this hell hole." Beck replied.

"Fair enough, I think I'm gonna take my chances escaping too." Dean said.

"If we can find a bigger car then you could come with us." Beck offered. "See anything in the parking lot?"

"It was too dark to see." Dean replied a they reached their camp setup area.

"Who's that?" Tori spoke, pointing the flashlight into Dean's face.

"Dean." Beck introduced him. "He's a solider."

"To save us?" Cat said hopefully.

"Sorry Girly." Dean shook his head. "I'm stuck here like you."

"How do we know he's not an infected?" Jade commanded, pulling out her scissors.

"Not green." Dean motioned to his skin. "And I can talk and walk properly. Not just slurs and stumbles."

"That's enough proof for me." Robbie spoke up. "I'm Robbie." He introduced himself.

"I'm Tori." Tori waved slightly.

"Jade." The goth said bluntly.

"Hey, I'm Cat." The redhead giggled.

"Beck, Andre, Robbie, Tori, Jade and Cat." Dean listed off, pointing at each person as he went.

"That's us." Beck said.

"It's my turn for keeping guard." Robbie yawned. "Take my bed Dean."


	5. Chapter 5

The Next Morning

"Anyone else for a burger?" Dean spoke up, offering up a burger and bun from the BBQ they'd set up the next morning, in the isle they designated for cooking.

"I'm good." Tori said, "Burgers for breakfast is just strange to me."

"We have to use up all the meat and bread before it goes out of date." Robbie pointed out.

"I want lucky charms." Cat pouted, crossed legged on the floor.

"Cereal is good to eat for months, so it's a waste to eat now." Robbie continued.

"I'll have another burger." Jade spoke up, getting a strange look from Tori and Cat. "What? if food's going I'll take it. We might end up having to leave at any moment and I'd rather run on a full stomach."

"Which reminds me," Beck said, "we need to pack bags that we can grab encase we need to leave."

"I saw some hiking backpacks in one of the isles." Dean spoke up, giving Jade the final burger. "I learnt how to tightly pack in the army, I could teach you all."

"Thanks Man." Andre said. "That's be great."

"You practically saved my life, it's the least I could do." Dean replied.

* * *

"Andre, man, are you going to help us packing or what?" Beck asked his friend, while he and the rest of the gang were currently trying to shove as much as they could into bags in case they needed to run.

"Mine's done." Andre replied from where he was sat, leaning against the wall playing with a toy guitar.

"You are really going insane without your music." Tori shook her head at the boy.

"You play guitar?" Dean asked Andre while helping Cat to organise her bag.

"Oh yeah, you don't know." Robbie remembered. "We all go- I mean went- to a Performing Arts school, so we all act or sing." He corrected himself mid sentence, getting a slight pang of sadness over how they would never go back to Hollywood Arts, due to the zombie infestation.

"You all any good?" Dean asked.

"Sure, Vega isn't though." Jade said, receiving confused glares form the group. "I mean, she's alright."

"I performed at the Platinum Music Awards." Tori boasted. "So I must be decent."

"Platinum Music Awards?" Dean asked, rummaging around Cat's bag to try and work out what was taking up all the space.

"You heard of it?" Tori asked.

"Nope." He replied bluntly, reaching the bottom of Cat's bag."You can't take this with you." He pulled out the toy giraffe she'd put in there.

"Why not?" Cat pouted.

"It's unnecessary and taking up room." He shrugged, but seeing the sadness in the girl's eyes, he sighed. "If you need to run, grab it but don't put it in your bag Darlin'. That way it's not taking up any room, if you're in danger you've gotta drop it."

"Kay kay." Cat smiled happily, hugging the toy close to her body.

"Leave it by your bag so you don't go searching for it when we run." Beck said to her.

"You're sorted now Darlin'." Dean said to Cat, re-packing all of her stuff into the bag.

"Thank you." Cat beamed, hugging the man, seemingly forgetting that they were basically strangers.

"She likes hugs." Jade explained, seeing the man's discomforted. "You can try to fight it, she won't stop."

"Time for your bag Andrew." Dean said to Andre.

"Andre." He corrected, putting down the toy guitar and walking over to Dean who was now checking his bag to see if it was packed properly.

* * *

Now the bags were packed with various clothes, bits of long lasting food, first aid kits, toiletries and other essentials, the gang was ready to leave at any moment. Of course, they would only leave when completely necessary, such as an attack on the store or once they run out of food. If, however, that time were to come, they would be prepared. The plan was as follows:

1)First, they'd run out though the old staff room at the back of the store wielding bats and knifes and would run into the parking lot to look for a car which would hold all of them and hopefully drive away with that, if not then they'd all have to scramble into Beck's car and have to cope with the cramped space.

2)Next they'd drive to the east coast. The route they'd planned takes them though the Arizona desert which would be the most empty area or land. Emptiness meant a lack of zombies, which meant a lack of danger. They'd have to probably find a way to refile the car or find another once. Otherwise it'd be a long walk to the East.

3)There was no solid plan over how to get past the border which blocked the zombies in, but for now that's all the gang needed to worry about.

Currently, the gang were all sat in various spots down an isle, keeping themselves occupied in any way they could. Jade was wilting down a bat into a spear with a kitchen knife; Cat had set up a small arrangement of teddies and was sat playing with them; Beck and Robbie were bouncing a tennis ball between themselves; and Andre was trying to tune the toy guitar. Dean was somewhere else in the store, leaving the group after he said he 'wanted to check he security of the place'.

"I think it's tuned." Andre smiled at his own skill, holding up the small guitar. It wasn't much, just a hard plastic frame with stiff plastic strings. However, it still made a surprisingly good sound for it's quality, or lack thereof.

"Strum out a song then man." Beck said, walking over to his friend.

"Happy or sad?" Andre asked the others.

"Now isn't really the time for happy." Jade pointed out.

"When is with you?" Tori smirked.

"Shut it Vega."

"How about ' _Pompeii'_ by Bastille?" Andre asked. "It's kinda an apocalypse song, if interpreted a certain way."

"Ummm." Cat hummed, trying to work out if she knew the song or not. "Ohh I know that one! Yeah, do it."

"Anyone got a rubber band or something?" Andre asked.

"Here." Tori pulled a hair band off of her wrist and handed it to Andre who wrapped it around the guitar neck to be a makeshift capo.

He strummed out a few chords before starting to sing,

 _"I was left to my own devices_  
 _Many days fell away with nothing to show."_ His voice was smooth and clear and quiet yet powerful. Soothing, in a way. I know you don't really call a guy's voice beautiful, but his was. It was the promise of tomorrow. It was beautiful.

 _And the walls kept tumbling down"_ Tori and Jade automatically joined in while the others waited to refresh their memories over the tune and lyrics.

 _"In the city that we love_  
 _Grey clouds roll over the hills_  
 _Bringing darkness from above_

 _"But if you close your eyes,"_ Robbie and Beck joined the others, belting the lyrics at the top of their lungs.  
 _Does it almost feel like_  
 _Nothing changed at all?_  
 _And if you close your eyes,_  
 _Does it almost feel like_  
 _You've been here before?_  
 _How am I gonna be an optimist about this?_  
 _How am I gonna be an optimist about this?_

 _We were caught up and lost in all of our vices."_ Cat finally joined in too after getting a feel for the song.  
 _In your pose as the dust settles around us_

 _And the walls kept tumbling down_  
 _In the city that we love_  
 _Grey clouds roll over the hills_  
 _Bringing darkness from above_

 _But if you close your eyes,_  
 _Does it almost feel like_  
 _Nothing changed at all?_  
 _And if you close your eyes,_  
 _Does it almost feel like_  
 _You've been here before?_  
 _How am I gonna be an optimist about this?_  
 _How am I gonna be an optimist about this?"_ The group all stopped, except Andre, leaving him to sing the next part solo.

 _"Oh where do we begin?_  
 _The rubble or our sins?_  
 _Oh where do we begin?_  
 _The rubble or our sins?"_

 _And the walls kept tumbling down"_ The rest all joined in again.  
 _In the city that we love_  
 _Grey clouds roll over the hills_  
 _Bringing darkness from above_

 _But if you close your eyes,_  
 _Does it almost feel like_  
 _Nothing changed at all?_  
 _And if you close your eyes,_  
 _Does it almost feel like_  
 _You've been here before?_  
 _How am I gonna be an optimist about this?_  
 _How am I gonna be an optimist about this?_

 _If you close your eyes,_  
 _Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?"_

A polite clap brought the gang out of their singing high, reminding them that they weren't actually alone in the store. "That sounded pretty good." Dean complimented them.

"Thanks man." Beck said back. "You find anything?"

"There was an unblocked door on the right side." He replied. "It's blocked now, but that could have been bad."

"That was the side Vega and Cat checked." Jade pointed out. "Get distracted did we?"

"What?" Cat replied. "Robbie and Andre were checking the right, we checked the left."

"She's right." Robbie sighed.

"For once." Jade cut in.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It doesn't matter anyway." Dean shook his head over the teen's feud. "It's blocked now." And with that he walked away to check the rest of the building. The teens all turned back to what they were doing before the singing.

"Tori." Cat whispered to her friend. "What did Jade mean by 'get distracted?'"

"I really don't know." Tori replied, shaking her head at what Jade was insinuating.

"I think she thinks we like each other." Cat winked at the brunette.

"I think so too." Tori replied, unsure whether Cat was winking jokingly or not.

"What're you two whispering about?" Andre asked the girls.

"Cat was just asking whether she should bother redyeing her hair using the products here, or just leave it to grow out." Tori lied quickly.

"Fair enough." Jade shrugged. "Your roots are showing Cat."

"You're mean." Cat frowned at the goth. "Yours are too, remember you're not the only one with dyed hair." She nodded to Jade's dyed black hair.

"Shut up." Jade snapped.

"Eek." Cat squealed, hiding behind Tori.


	6. Chapter 6

A few days later, as the gang get onto their airbeds 

**( This is the 4th day in the store, 8 days since the Radioactive Blast **_**A/N I think so anyway... 'cause they spent 4 and a half days in the safe room and now 3 and a half in the store.** _)

* * *

 **(Also, this chapter is the reason why this story is M rated)**

* * *

"Who's taking the first shift?" Beck asked, laying back onto the airbed he shared with his girlfriend.

"I'll do it." Cat spoke up. "I'm really awake still after that coffee." She practically bounced to her feet.

"Who gave her coffee?" Jade rolled her eyes. "Vega was it you?"

"Why would- Cat was it you who stole my coffee?" Tori exclaimed.

"You gave it to me." Cat pouted.

"I said you could have one sip."

"Shhhh." Andre moaned, placing his hands over his ears. "I want some quiet."

"Sorry." Tori replied.

"Here." Robbie handed Cat the flashlight for her night shift. "Hey, where's Dean?" He said after noting the lack of their army friend.

"In the toilets still." Beck said. "He said he wanted to try and wash his hair in one of the sinks."

"What hair?" Jade joked. "He basically has a buzz cut."

"Still want quiet!" Andre said, his head now buried into his pillow.

"Night guys." Beck said, wrapping his arm around Jade.

"Night." Cat replied, taking her seat in the camping chair in the front of the isle that they designated for the night watch.

"Wake me when you get tired Cat." Tori spoke up. "I'll take second watch."

"Kay kay." The younger girl replied, turning off her flashlight for the others to sleep.

* * *

Cat POV ' _thoughts'_ "spoken"

 _'Everyone's been asleep for like an hour now. Well I think they're all asleep, Robbie definitely is 'cause I can hear him snoring, or 'heavy breathing' as he calls it. Hehe. I can't blame him, he doesn't have his inhaler with him. That hasn't really stopped Jadey from blaming him though. She's mean sometimes, but sometimes she's nice so I still like her still. Everyone is nice to me, even Dean who seems cold to everyone else. Tori is extra nice to me, I think she likes me, I mean like likes me. I hope she does cause I like like her too. Hehe. I think she's straight though. But then again, I thought I was too until like 2 years ago when I heard my brother talk about his pansexual friend. I googled what it was and I was like 'thats me'. I just love everyone I guess! I looovve love!_

 _Speaking of Tori, I'm starting to get tired, maybe I'll wake her for her shift. But she looks so peaceful, at least I think she does, it's too dark to tell. I'll wait until Dean comes back and then I'll wake her. Wait, where is Dean? It can't take that long to wash his hair, it's all so short.'_

"Dumm dee dumm doo dee. Hehe. Dooo deee daaa." ' _Funny little noises. Oo_ _psie, I'm meant to be quiet. I don't think I woke anyone though, it seems quiet still_.'

' _I think I'm crashing from the coffee. I should go wake Tori. But this camping chair is so comfy._ "Awwhh." I yawned. _I'll get up when Dean comes back. That won't be too long. I'll just shut my eyes f-.'_

* * *

' _What's happening?'_ I mentally asked as my body slowly woke up. ' _Someone's carrying me. It's probably Dean taking me back to my airbed. He's nice to me, he keeps calling me 'Darlin' which sounds funny coming from him._

 _Wait, this seems too far to be my bed. I just heard a door open. IS HE DUMPING ME OUTSIDE WITH THE ZOMBIES?!'_ I wearily opened my eyes t to discover that I was in fact in Dean's arms and he wasn't carrying me to me bed. We were in this room that I've never seen before. ' _We must be on the right side of the store, 'cause I searched the left side.'_ I felt Dean lower my body to the cold ground. "Dean?" I croaked out, confused and slightly scared.

"Oh shit." He muttered, his body towering over mine as I tried to sit up.

"W...what?" I asked. ' _He used a bad word. Did I do something wrong?'._ "Why are we in here?"

"Just go back to sleep." He growled, using his foot to push my body against the ground and hold it there.

"I'm scared Dean." I whimpered, the sole of his shoe digging into my chest. "I don't want to sleep here. I want to go back to my bed."

"Tough." He spat, holding me down still as he began to remove his belt and lower his trousers.

"Dean w...what're you-."

"Shut up." He cut me off, moving his foot from my chest and to my neck, cutting off my breathing and speech, but with not enough pressure to break it. I tried to claw at his shoe, but they were thick army boots and wouldn't budge. I felt the lack of oxygen start to effect me as my eyes started to shut. "No you don't." He lifted up his boot for me to gasp for air, before replacing it again. "Now that you're awake, you can stay that way." He snarled, his pants now by his ankles, as he began to pull down his boxers.

This is when it really hit me about what was going to happen. He was going to rape me. And there was nothing I could do, I was pinned to the ground. As soon as his boxers fell, he pulled me to my feet and rammed me against the wall and ripped apart my leggings, with one hand still against my neck to silence my screams and pleas. My underwear came next, his comment over the bright pink colour nearly made me vomit.

The rest... I can't fully remember. I'm not sure if that's because of fear or because I was floating in a limbo between consciousness and unconsciousness as he pressed his hand into my throat, releasing every few seconds for me to breathe. As he came to a climax however, I do remember him not placing his hand back onto my neck, rather he placed it against the wall to steady himself. Though the tears and sobs I choked out a scream for help. Dean realised his mistake and re-clamped his hands to my neck as he finished. This time he didn't let go for me to breath.

As my eyes fully closed I heard the commotion of Beck and Andre bursting though the door.

* * *

No POV (a few moments earlier than Cat's POV ended)

"HELP!" Cat's scream echoed away from the room in which she was trapped in and to where the gang were sleeping.

"What was that?" Andre said, bolting upright.

"Sounded like Cat." Tori gasped, using her flashlight to point to the seat where Cat should have been sat in. "She's not there." She gasped.

"Andre." Beck said, grabbing the bat from beside his bed. "Come on man."

"I'm coming too." Tori said, jumping to our feet.

"But-" Beck started.

"There's no time to argue Beck." Andre replied, rushing out of the isle.

"Stay behind us." Beck told Toi, leaving Robbie and Jade still in their slumbers, unaware of the events occurring.

"Where'd you think it came from?"

"Sounded like this way." Andre replied, running down the right side of the store.

"What the hell was Cat doing?"

"Dean!" Tori yelled in realisation. "She might have been looking for him or something."

"She wouldn't do that." Beck replied. "Unless he took her. He'll be in that room he set up for himself!"

"What room?" Tori said back.

"It's where he goes during the day. I don't know what's in there, I've just seen him go in. Tori wait out here" Beck rammed his body into the door that led to said room, and he and Andre stormed in.

They didn't even have time to comprehend what they saw before Beck swung his bat and knocked Dean out cold, making him drop an unconscious and broken Cat to the floor. "Cat." Andre gasped, rushing to the red-head's side.

"I...is she okay?" Beck stuttered, knowing what happened as soon as he saw that Dean's trousers were lowered.

Andre used his thumb to lightly open one of Cat's eyes for a reaction, but they were lifeless. The spark that existed before had vanished. Her lips were slightly perched open, but nothing but a small noise came out periodically. The sound they made was a relief, but nothing more than a relief. It would be foolish to call it comfort. She spoke nothing, and looked off into nothing. She was becoming nothing. Her mind was either soullessly blank, or completely ravaged by thoughts that tore at the very synapses of their brain, leaving her completely unresponsive.

"T...Tori." Andre screamed, making the half-Latina walk into the room. "P...please d...do something."

"CAT!" Tori screamed, dropping to the red-head's side and immediately knowing what'd happened because of the large rip down the centre of Cat's leggings and the blood stuck to her inner thigh. "Oh Cat." Tori sobbed.

"She...she's barely breathing!" Beck said, noting the lack of rise and fall of her chest. He then grabbed Cat's wrist. "Her pulse is too weak."

"What do we do?" Andre said in panic.

"CPR." Tori announced though the tears. She positioned her face above Cat's and lowered her mouth onto the red-head's, pinching the her nose closed, placing two fingers under her chin, and started breathing into her mouth. "Someone." Tori said between breaths. "Do chest compression." As commanded, Beck leapt forward towards Cat's fragile body and placed two hands in the centre of her rib rage. At a steady tempo he pushed the palms of his hands down and then back up again, then again and again, each compression wearing him out more and more until... eventually... Cat's eyes started to flutter open.

There was a sigh of relief when Cat blinked a few times and even moved her arm to push herself up. "T...tori." She croaked out, slowly sitting upright and using her arms for support.

"I'm so sorry Cat." Tori replied, tears still fresh on her face.

"T..." The half-latina's name was lost on Cat's tongue as the recollection flooded her mind. Her body gave up on her as she collapsed into Tori's arms, sobbing.

"W..what do we do with him?" Andre stuttered, motioning to the unconscious Dean who was now bleeding from the head, while the two girls cried in each other's embrace.

"Chuck him outside." Beck said coldly. "He'll either bleed out or the zombies will get him. I don't care as long as he's dead."

* * *

A few minutes later, Tori and Cat were still in sat in a tight embrace, holding each other for dear life. Tori had removed her hoodie to cover Cat's legs and held the smaller girl close to her body as her sobs echoed around the room. Beck and Andre had removed the blockages from the fire-door and carried Dean's unconscious body out of the store and threw him outside in the the zombie infected night.

"GUYS!" They heard Jade yell from main part of the store. "WHERE ARE YOU? ROBBIE'S SCARED?!"

" _I'm_ scared?" They heard Robbie say back. "You woke up and cried out for Beck which woke me up."

"Shut up!" Jade snapped. "GUYS!"

"In here!" Beck yelled back in a shaking voice as he and Andre re-blocked off the door which lead to the outside world.

"This way." Robbie said, pulling Jade along a corridor and into the room.

"Why the hell are you in here?" Jade snapped, suddenly hearing Cat's shaking cries. "Cat?"

"What happened?" Robbie asked, his eyes wide at the sight of Cat's head buried into Tori's chest. He rushed forward to comfort the girl, but she let out an ear piercing scream as soon as his hand touched her back.

"Don't Robbie." Tori said, her voice rough from the sobs from earlier.

"Someone tell me what happened!" Jade commanded.

"Dean." Andre stuttered, unable to look anyone in the eye. "He just... he raped her."

"HE WHAT?!" Jade screamed suddenly. "I'LL KILL HIM... I'LL I'll..." Jade's cold exterior broke around her as she fell against the wall in shock. Her legs gave in on her, sending her sliding down the wall and into a tight ball.

"Jay...Jadey?" Cat mumbled, her sobs stopping slightly.

"Yeah Cat?"

"You're gonna have... to wait your turn." She replied. Jade returned with a weak smile, tears starting to form in her eyes at the sight of the broken girl that she'd known since Kindergarden. "T...tori." Cat stuttered. "I need to... clean myself up."

"Okay Cat." Tori whispered to the girl in her arms, helping her to her feet.

"I'll carry you to the-" Andre started.

"NO!" Cat near-screamed. "S...sorry that's h...h..how h...he b..b..b.."

"Brought you here?" Robbie finished for her.

"Uhuh." Cat nodded.

"We'll help you okay?" Jade said, getting to her feet and slowly walking towards the girl. Once she knew it was safe to touch her, she draped Cat's right arm over her shoulders, while Tori did the same with Cat's left arm.

"I'll get her some new clothes." Robbie spoke up.

"N...not pink." Cat mumbled, confusing the group slightly. "Please."

"Okay." Robbie stuttered weakly, leaving the room to go find some clothes that would fit Cat.

* * *

Jade and Tori helped Cat to slowly make her way to the toilets in the main store. They pushed open the woman door labelled 'Women's' and helped Cat in. Jade pulled out her flashlight and placed it onto the sink counter top so that the room was lit up.

"I...I..." Cat sobbed as she saw her refection in the mirror. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying and there was a large blue/purple bruise forming along her neck.

"Did he strangle you?" Jade spoke-whispered.

"To... stop me from screaming... for help." Cat replied bluntly, finally now able to understand why it hurt so much to talk and breathe.

"I'm so sorry it took us so long to find you." Tori stumbled over her words as she tried to apologise.

"It's not your fault." Cat replied, wiping away the remaining tears.

A knock on the door startled the girls, making Cat stumble backwards and into Jade's arms. "Who is it?" Tori spoke up.

"Robbie." Robbie replied from he other side of the door. "I brought clothes for Cat, and a towel."

"Thank you." Tori said, opening the door slightly and taking the pile of fabrics from the boy.

"Tell Cat I'm sorry for scaring her earlier." He replied, weakly smiling and turning away.

"He said-"

"I heard." Cat replied, taking the clothes from Tori as the half-Latina began to wet a corner of the towel.

"Do you need help or anything?" Jade offered.

"I...I think I'm okay." Cat took the towel and walked into one of the toilet cubicles. "Can you two wait there though please... I might need you."

"Of course Cat." Tori replied.

* * *

Cat POV

I... I can't believe what happened. And I can't believe it happened to me. We trusted Dean, I trusted Dean, and this is how he repays us. Rape. I just can't believe him I- _No Cat don't cry again. Stop._ "You okay in there Kitty?" Jade asked.

"You haven't called me that in years." I replied, smiling slightly at the use of the old nickname Jade gave me. "And... yeah I'm okay." That's not true. I'm not okay, but I guess I've got to be strong. Slowly, I unwrapped Tori's jumper from my waste and saw the rip down my leggings and the crimson blood soaked into them. I lowered them, and my ripped underwear and started to wipe away the blood with the towel Tori gave me. I feel so dirty. I need to wash him away from me. I need soap- I've never wanted a shower so much in my life- but they don't have showers here. All I have is this wet towel so I kept scrubbing until my legs were raw.

Shaking the thoughts from my head, I pulled the new leggings from the pile of clothes Robbie gave me, along with a pair of underwear and pulled them on, discarding my ruined pink pair on the ground. I never want to see pink again, his comment over her ' _cute'_ they looked keeps running though my mind. I think this time I might actually vomit. ' _Oh go-_ ' I spun on my heel and retched into the toilet.

"Cat?" I heard Tori screech. As I threw up, I reached back my arm to unlock the cubicle door. Tori rushed in and held my hair back as I emptied my stomach.

"I'm sorry." I sobbed as she pulled me close to her.

"You have nothing to apologise for." She stroked my hair as I laid my head on her chest.

We stayed like that for a while, whilst Jade flushed the vomit down the toilet and removed my discarded clothes from the floor. "Do you want go back to the beds?" She asked.

"I guess so." I mumbled back. Jade and Tori helped me to my feet and guided me to my bed. As soon as I laid down I started to panic. "Please don't leave." I grabbed Tori's arm before she got into her own bed.

"I won't." Tori replied, curving her body around my back and holding me close.

"Promise?"

"I promise."


	7. Chapter 7

The next few days were rough, not just for Cat. The whole group were in a perpetual silence, watching their youngest member internally suffer and randomly burst into tears. No one blamed her, no one even considered that to be an option. They just prayed that she would recover, and bring back the smile that they all loved. No one realised just how much joy Cat brought to the group until it was gone.

The phrase 'stolen innocence' seemed to take on multiple meanings for the girl. She didn't laugh, or smile, or talk about random things, or even talk in full sentences, just blunt snippets. Meals were a struggle, as she refused to eat. Even when she did, she would end up throwing it all back up again. It wasn't hard to see the weight she'd lost because of it, leaving her cheeks hollow and a glare in her big brown eyes. She'd only sleep once everyone else was asleep, and she had to be in Tori's arms. She wouldn't let any of the boys near her without Jade or Tori by her side. She even started to carry around a pair of scissors, like Jade, 'for protection' she would say.

"Please Cat." Robbie said to the younger girl, offering her a bowl of Lucky Charms. Even though it was good to eat for months, the group had agreed to open it for Cat, hoping it would convince her to eat.

"No point. Worthless." She said bluntly, not meeting his eyes, hugging her legs close to her chest.

"Please Kitty." Since that day, Jade had decided to use the nickname when addressing Cat. It seemed to bring back the light in her eyes for a split second.

"You need to eat." Tori said. "Eating isn't worthless."

"I am."

"Cat no." Jade said, looking at the broken girl. "You will never ever think about yourself like that!" Jade's voice raised slightly.

"Why the fuck not?" Cat snapped, looking right at Jade. The group wasn't sure whether to be shocked over her swearing, or that fact she just said her first full sentence in days. "You used to say it all the time about yourself!"

"Kitty." Jade hushed her, feeling the memories flood back over her rough past. "D...don't bring that up. Besides that was different."

"What does she mean Jade?" Beck asked his girlfriend.

"Middle School stuff." Jade dismissed.

"It's not that different." Cat muttered, only loud enough for Jade to hear. "I feel the same way you did."

"Y...you what?" Jade's mouth went as dry as a desert. Memories continued to flash into her mind. The reasons over why she wore black, and got addicted to scissors. It started to fit together like a puzzle in her brain as she looked at the girl in front of her. The girl with a pair of scissors in her back pocket, the girl in a black outfit. She tried to brush it off, Cat was wearing black 'cause she refused to wear pink because of what Dean had said. Jade hated that so much, Cat made them hide any pink clothing, for Jade it was so hard to see Cat act so utterly different. Either way, there was a nagging feeling in the older girl's mind, telling her something different. "We need to go." Jade said, grabbing Cat's wrist and practically dragging her to the nearby toilets.

"Jadey." Cat was shaking violently as the door shut behind her.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Jade cut in quickly, to try and keep Cat calm. "I just didn't want them to hear us."

"I'm s...sorry." Cat mumbled. "I shouldn't have started to talk about that."

"It's okay." Jade bean to pace slightly. "I'm worried about you Cat. You 'feel the same way'? You can't feel-"

"Suicidal?" Cat cut in.

"Yeah." Jade sighed, remembering her dark Middle School days. "You... you know why I liked scissors?"

"Because you'd self harm." Cat said slowly, recalling the many nights on the phone to Jade, convincing her to not do it.

"And now you've got them too." Jade gulped, tears brimming her eyes.

"F...for protection." Cat replied.

"Cat, roll up your sleeves."

"N..no."

"Kitty please."

Slowly Cat raised the sleeve on her right arm to reveal a row of red lines along her wrist. "I'm sorry Jadey."

"I..." Jade's eyes flickered back to her own arms, and after seeing the faint white lines of her own past battles. "I can't be mad." She sighed. "But please... please don't do it again."

"I don't want to." Cat replied, suddenly breaking down into tears. "That look in your eyes. The disappointment... Jadey stop looking at me like that!"

"If it'll stop you, then no." Jade said, her tear filled eyes looking into the red-head's brown orbs. "Give me your scissors." Cat reached into her back pockets and handed over the scissors. "And eat something... please.

"Kay...kay." Cat mumbled, following her friend out of the toilets.

As they reached the group again, Cat sat down beside Tori and reluctantly took the bowl of cereal. Shakily taking each bite, she rested her back against Tori. "Vega." Jade whispered to the girl. "You take care of her alright."

"I will." Tori nodded, not quite realising what she'd just said.

* * *

Music is the rhythm of the soul. It flows through your veins and swirls in your head. It makes you fingers drum and you feet tap. It transcends the everyday monotony to make each fresh morning a new journey of sounds. The most of the gang the voice was their instrument and they couldn't live a single day without singing. To them music was life and life was music. It's in everything they saw. It's in the air they breathe. It was practically in their DNA.

Yet, none of them had really sung since that night. The mood was too shallow. However, after today Jade decided that music was desperately needed to cheer them all up. Maybe singing would bring Cat little closer back to them. Picking up the guitar, Jade began to strum a few notes.

 **(A/N Liz Gillies did an epic cover of this song. Seriously, google 'Liz Gillies Fast Car.' and that's what I'm basing this scene off of.)**

 _"You got a fast car_

 _I want a ticket to anywhere_

 _Maybe we make a deal_

 _Maybe together we can get somewhere_

 _Anyplace is better_

 _Starting from zero got nothing to lose_

 _Maybe we'll make something_

 _Me, myself I got nothing to prove."_ Robbie started to tap a simple drum beat out onto the ground and joined Jade's singing.

 _"You got a fast car_

 _I got a plan to get us out of here_

 _I been working at the convenience store_

 _Managed to save just a little bit of money_

 _Won't have to drive too far_

 _Just 'cross the border and into the city_

 _You and I can both get jobs_

 _And finally see what it means to be living_

 _You see my old man's got a problem."_ Andre and Beck joined in here.

 _"He live with the bottle that's the way it is_

 _He says his body's too old for working_

 _His body's too young to look like his_

 _My mama went off and left him_

 _She wanted more from life than he could give_

 _I said somebody's got to take care of him_

 _So I quit school and that's what I did_

 _You got a fast car."_ Now Tori joined, leaving only Cat not singing.

 _"Is it fast enough so we can fly away_

 _We gotta make a decision_

 _Leave tonight or live and die this way_

 _So remember we were driving, driving in your car_

 _Speed so fast I felt like I was drunk_

 _City lights lay out before us_

 _And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder_

 _I had a feeling that I belonged_

 _I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone_

 _You got a fast car_

 _We go cruising to entertain ourselves_

 _You still ain't got a job_

 _I work in a market as a checkout girl_

 _I know things will get better_

 _You'll find work and I'll get promoted_

 _We'll move out of the shelter_

 _Buy a bigger house and live in the suburbs."_ The group were all looking at Cat for the final part, and Jade had to replay the instrumental twice before the red-head finally opened her mouth.

 _"You got a fast car_

 _But is it fast enough so you can fly away_

 _You gotta make a decision_

 _Leave tonight or live and die this way."_ Cat sing the final part on her own with her eyes closed. Her voice was quiet but still as strong as ever, even with the (now healing) bruise around her neck. As soon as she finished, she opened her eyes to see the smiling face of her friends. Eventually her own smile revealed itself, dimple and all. "Thanks guys." She giggled.

"Anything for you Kitty." Jade smiling back.


	8. Chapter 8

**Apocalypse** **timeline**

Days 1-5 In the saferoom

Day 5 - Got to the store

Day 8 /Day 9 (In the night between the two) - When Cat was raped.

Day 14 - Day of the previous chapter.

* * *

1 weeks later (Day 21)

It's been exactly 3 weeks since the apocalypse began. 3 very very long weeks of waiting. So far though, the gang has been lucky. There had yet to be any zombie intrusions to the store, despite the many nights where they heard the banging of zombies trying to get in. Luckily, the security always held them back and kept the gang safe.

"Ah chiz." Tori groaned while in a toilet cubicle the next morning.

"What Tori?" Cat asked from where she was washing her hands.

"I started my period for the month." She moaned again, grabbing one of the pads from the box they'd placed in the cubicle for that exact reason.

"Great." Jade sighed. "Mine always comes like a day after yours."

"M...mine normally comes first." Cat stuttered.

"You're just late then Cat." Tori replied nonchalant. "It's not like- oh." Her voice faded away into nothing as the realisation hit.

"Holy shit." Jade gasped. "We didn't even think about that."

"No." Cat shook her head at the thought, tears forming in her eyes. "I can't be pregnant."

Jade mentally counted backwards to the god-forsaken day. "You should have been ovulating then. Oh Kitty-"

"Don't 'Kitty' me." Cat snapped. "I'm just late is all. Just late."

"There are tests in the store somewhere." Tori said, walking out of the cubicle.

"No!" Cat yelled adamantly. "I'm not pregnant, there's no point in testing. I know I'm not!"

"Okay Cat." Tori sighed. "It's your choice."

"Leave it a week okay." Jade comforted. "If it's not come, then take a test okay?"

"Kay kay."

* * *

"What's with the sour faces Chickas?" Andre asked Tori and Jade as they walked back to the boys, who were all sat reading books they'd found around the store. If there was one upside to this whole ordeal, it was that the gang had managed to find themselves a real good place to hide out as they had 101 things to do there until they had to run.

"Tori's bleeding out of her vag." Jade shrugged, sitting beside her boyfriend.

"Jade!"

"Graphic much?" Robbie visibly gagged.

"What?" Jade said. "It's a natural process."

"Where's Cat?" Andre asked, noting the lack of their red-headed friend.

"She wanted some time alone." Tori said, the group shrugged it off. Cat recently liked her alone time, to have some time to think. Originally the group was wary of letting her wander about on her own, but eventually they just let her go.

"Where do you think she goes?" Beck asked, turning over the page in his book.

"There's a tent set up a few isles down." Robbie pointed out. "I think she goes in there."

"When'd you find that?"

"Andre wanted to see how far he could throw a tennis ball, and it ended up over there." He replied.

"It was a good throw though." Andre chuckled.

"I can't believe it's been 3 weeks." Jade said randomly. "3 weeks since this all began. 3 weeks since we saw our families."

"At least we have each other." Beck said, no one had really addressed the fact that all their families would be dead now.

"Amen to that." Andre spoke up. "Though, I do miss my parents and grandma. I doubt they made it."

"It's miss mine too." Robbie sighed, putting down his book.

"I can't believe they're all gone." Tori looked sadly at her feet. "Mom, Dad, Trina. Even everyone from school."

"Cat's lucky at least." Jade said. "Her families all in Idaho."

"But compared to what she'd gone though since, I'm not sure if she is lucky." Tori said.

"She isn't, I know." Jade shook her head. "I guess I still have my dad. He'd just gone on holiday to France with my Step Mom. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not."

"Any family is a good thing."

"Oh god. Jackson." Jade's eyes suddenly started to fill with tears. "My little brother. **(A/N it is actually mentioned that Jade has a younger brother on TheSlap, so I'm not making this up.)** He was too young to die!"

"How old was he?" Tori asked

"6." She replied, her voice breaking slightly as he boyfriend put his arm around her. "Oh god, I'm a wreak."

"I'm more surprised that the rest of us aren't crying." Andre spoke up.

"It hasn't hit us yet."

Suddenly, Cat's voice interrupted them as the muffled noise of her singing started to reach them from her tent hideout a few isles away. (Song: "You Don't Know" by Katelyn Tarver)

 _"I know you've got the best intentions_

 _Just trying to find the right words to say_

 _I promise I already learned my lesson_

 _But right now, I want to be not okay_

 _I'm so tired, sitting here waiting_

 _If I hear one more just be patient_

 _It's always gonna stay the same"_ Her voice started off barely audible to the group because of the distance between them.

 _"So, let me just give up_

 _So, let me just let go_

 _If this isn't good for me, well I don't wanna know_

 _Let me just stop trying_

 _Let me just stop fighting_

 _I don't want your good advice or reasons why I'm alright_

 _You don't know what it's like_

 _You don't know what it's like_

 _Can't stop these feet from sinking."_ Her voice picked up in volume a little, and the group was enticed by the sad song coming from the girl they thought was getting better.

 _And it's starting to show on me_

 _You're staring while I'm blinking_

 _But just don't tell me what you see_

 _I'm so over all this bad luck_

 _Hearing one more keep your head up_

 _Is it ever gonna change_

 _So, let me just give up_

 _So, let me just let go_

 _If this isn't good for me, well I don't wanna know_

 _Let me just stop trying_

 _Let me just stop fighting_

 _I don't want your good advice, or reasons why I'm alright_

 _You don't know what it's like_

 _You don't know what it's like_

 _Ooooooh ooh woooooh_

 _Ooh wooooh oooh woooh_

 _Don't look at me like that."_ Her lyrics were now fully loud enough for the group to hear her, she was practically belting the notes out at this point, not fully aware of how loud she was.

 _"Just like you understand_

 _Don't try to pull me back_

 _Let me just give up"_ Her voice went back to quiet again.

 _"Let me just let go_

 _If this isn't good for me I don't wanna know_

 _Let me just stop trying"_ The volume slowly picked back up again.

 _Let me just stop fighting_

 _I don't want your good advice or reasons why I'm alright_

 _You don't know what it's like_

 _You don't know what it's like_

 _You don't know_

 _You don't know_

 _You don't know_

 _You don't know what it's like_

 _You don't know what it's like_

 _You don't know_

 _You don't know_

 _You don't know what it's like_

 _You don't know what it's like."_

Her voice rolled over the hills in sorrowful waves. Swells of power rose up in her throat. Her voice was music, and grace, and the haunting feeling of knowing that her voice was brought out in a fit of rage, of pain. Her hand went to her heart and her head rose as she belted out the final note. They sat in silence for a few minutes, taking in what they'd just heard from the red-head girl.

"I thought she was getting better." Robbie spoke up.

"She is." Beck replied. "She's letting it all out now."

"Should we tell them?" Tori looked at Jade, who just briefly nodded at the half-latina. "She realised today that she's late."

"Late? On what?" Andre asked.

"Her period." Jade stated. "Basically, there's a chance she's pregnant."

"Poor Cat." Robbie sighed.

"She refuses to believe it though." Tori said.

"From that song, I think she might be."


	9. Chapter 9

3 days later (Day 24)

The gang were all currently eating some pasta they'd cooked in a saucepan of water on the BBQ. "You know what I won't miss." Andre said, picking at his plain pasta. "Having to eat specific food based on when they go out of date."

"You're lucky we're even eating pasta, this doesn't go out of date till a year's time." Jade said back. "Just put up with it." She growled, not in the mood to hear him whining.

"Still very bland though." Andre replied.

"No one cares." Tori snapped.

"I hate that you're both on your periods." Robbie groaned, receiving glares from both of the girls.

"Rule number 1 of girls." Beck warned Robbie. "Never comment about their periods."

"Run Shapiro." Jade threatened, glaring daggers at the boy.

"Jadey don't." Cat said calmly.

"Fine." Jade growled, focusing back onto her pasta.

A loud crash sent the group into shock. "What the hell was that?" Tori yelled.

"Sounded like something just got in." Andre said, rushing to his bed and grabbing the bat he stored beside it. "Who's coming with?"

"We all will." Jade said, pulling out her scissors.

"If it's a person then we're turning them away." Beck said quickly, grabbing his own bat while the other's grabbed their 'weapons'.

The group charged down the left side of the store where noises were coming from it: crashes, bangs and slurred growls. "Zombies." Cat spoke up as they reached the store's old staff room (where Andre and Beck had originally let Dean in through). As soon as they burst though the door, they were faced with a trio of zombies who'd managed to knock down the barriers they'd set up to block the door. Beck and Andre, who were at the front of the group, each hit a zombie over the head, while Jade used her scissors to throw into the last one's chest. All three of the zombies were knocked out cold and send crashing to the ground while another two zombies stumbled in though the unblocked door. Robbie and Tori both easily knocked these zombies out, while Cat checked the doorway for anymore oncoming zombies. "All clear." She told the others.

"Let's chuck them back out again then." Andre said, hauling one of the zombie bodies back outside of the store.

"It all looks so normal out here." Robbie observed the world outside as he and Jade carried another zombie out of the door.

"It's like nothing ever happened." Tori noted. Apart from the various smashed windows in their eye line, the world did look normal, just a little quiet. The sun was still shining bright like every over day in LA, and the buildings still stood tall all around them. It really did look normal... too normal.

"Except the zombies roaming everywhere." Beck pointed out, nodding to the crowd of zombies that had gathered on the parking lot to their left.

"Quickly chuck them all out then." Andre announced, hauling another body out of the door.

As soon as the last body was out of the store, Beck slammed the fire-door shut and (with the help of the others) replaced all of the furniture that blocked the door, along with a few more pieces to make sure it stayed shut.

"They are surprisingly easy to overpower." Tori commented. "I'm not complaining, but in the movies it's always so hard."

"It makes sense that it's easy, they don't have weapons or anything. To be honest, they might not be able to hurt us, we don't know if the infection is spreadable."

"I'd rather not find out." Cat spoke up.

"It's best to not let them bite us or anything, but I was just pointing out." Robbie added.

"How much longer are we going to stay here for?"

"Until we have to leave."

* * *

4 days later (Day 28)

Tori and Cat were currently sat on the floor of the sink section of the toilets. "You need to do it Cat." Tori said, handing the red-head the pregnancy test.

"I'm not pregnant." Cat said stubbornly, pushing the box back towards Tori.

"You promised that you'd test in a weeks time. That was a week ago." Tori reminded her.

"I...I'm scared." Cat rested her head on Tori's shoulder. "Please don't make me do this."

"Cat." Tori turned the younger girl to face her and placed her hands over Cat's smaller ones. "If you are pregnant, know that we'll all stand by your side and help your though this every step of the way."

"It's not that." Cat looked away from the brunette. "I'm scared it'll hurt me. That sounds so selfish... but I'm only 16 and I'm so small. My body might not be able to cope with it."

"I didn't even think about that." Tori mumbled.

"Or it'll hurt the baby. I won't be able to raise an ill baby, not in this situation. How would I be able to look after it?" Cat cried out.

"We'll be out of here before they're born." Tori comforted. "And we'll get you to Idaho, back to your parents."

"Oh my god, I didn't even think about that. What will they think?"

"They will understand Cat. It wasn't your fault, or your choice."

"I know, I know."

"Now come on." Tori handed Cat back the test. "In a minute, we'll know for sure."

"Kay kay." Cat mumbled, finding her way to her feet and walking into the cubical.

* * *

About a minute later, she walked back out, test in hand. "So what does it say?" Tori asked.

"It'll take a few minutes to tell me." Cat replied shakily.

"Sorry, I've never done this before."

"Me neither, I just read the instructions." Cat smiled weakly, cleaning the stick before sitting on the floor next to Tori and putting the stick in front of them.

"This has got to be one of the tensest moments of my life." Tori spoke up.

"You're telling me." Cat replied, closing her eyes and re-resting her head on Tori's shoulder. "Remember the first night?"

"In the safe room?" Tori sked

"Yeah, when you sung me that song. Could you do it again?"

Without a second thought, Tori slowly started to sing the Taylor Swift song 'Safe and Sound'.

 _"I remember tears streaming down your face when I said I'll never let you go_

 _When all those shadows almost killed your light_

 _I remember you said don't leave me here alone_

 _But all that's dead and gone and passed tonight_

 _Just close your eyes, the sun is going down_

 _You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now_

 _Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound_

 _Don't you dare look out your window, darling everything's on fire_

 _The war outside our door keeps raging on_

 _Hold onto this lullaby even when the musics gone, gone_

 _Just close your eyes, the sun is going down_

 _You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now_

 _Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound_

 _Just close your eyes, you'll be alright_

 _Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound."_

"Thank you Tori." Cat mumbled to Tori, her eyes still closed. "I don't want to look at the test. Can you do it please?"

"S...sure." Tori replied, picking up the test from the floor in front of them. Her mouth when dry as the two pink lines looked back up at her.

"What does it say?" Cat whispered, her eyes still clamped shut.

"Congratulations Cat." Tori choked out. "You're going to be a Mom."

* * *

Cat POV

"Really?" I asked, my eyes shooting open and looking straight at the little stick in Tori's hand.

"Really." She replied, pointing to the two pink lines. _Pink._ Oh how that colour has betrayed me. "You feeling okay?"

"I...I'm not sure." As I held that little stick in my hand, I thought I would cry at this. Instead I just felt my hand snake down to my stomach and rest there. "I'm pregnant." I spoke aloud.

"You are." Tori smiled weakly at me. "I'll be here for you during the whole thing, I..."

Tori's words just became a blur in my jumbled mind. I can't believe I'm pregnant. I'm going to be a Mom. Focusing my mind back on Tori, I noticed she was looking into my eyes and telling me about how she wanted to help me out, if I'd let her. "Tori." I cut her off.

"Yeah?" She replied.

"I love you." I said back. I honestly have no idea where this sudden bravery has come from, probably from the adrenaline pumping through my veins.

"I love you too." She replied. As soon as the words left her mouth, I started to lean forward and push my lips against hers. They were so soft, just how I'd imagined them to be.

After only a few seconds, she pulled away. "What? Did I do something wrong?" I stuttered, my mind still spinning.

"Not at all." Tori smiled back. "I just didn't feel right kissing while not being in a relationship."

"Are... are you asking me out?" I'm still stuttering. ' _Pull yourself together Cat'._

"Yes." Her smiled broadened. "Cat Valentine, will you be my girlfriend?"

"Of course." I smiled back, leaning in again for another kiss.

* * *

No POV

After a few minutes of kissing and laying in each other's arms, Cat and Tori eventually left the toilets and walked back into the main store where the rest of the gang were waiting. Jade was laying with her head on Beck's legs while he read a book, Andre was playing about with his guitar, and Robbie was sat writing something in a note book. "Guys." Tori said. "We've got some news."

"I KNEW IT!" Jade jumped to her feet. "I was right!"

"We haven't even said what it is yet." Cat smiled slightly.

"You're holding hands for God's sake!" Jade announced, pointing the the girl's interlocking hands. "I was right!" She repeated.

"Who asked who?" Beck chuckled at his girlfriend's excitement.

"Cat said she loved me, and then I asked." Tori said, laughing slightly too.

"So you're all alright with this?" Cat asked, looking around at her completely unfazed friends.

"To be honest, I'm relieved it's finally happened. You've both been giving each other these looks for months." Andre said.

"It's not been months... okay maybe months." Tori smiled.

"That's... that's not all guys." Cat said suddenly. "I took the test." She pulled the pregnancy test out of her back pocket. "Don't worry, it's clean." She handed it to Jade.

"Are you happy?" Jade asked the redhead, in slight shock.

"I.. I think so."

"Congratulations then Kitty." Jade walked over and hugged her Best Friend. "You treat her right Vega."

"I will. I promise."


	10. Chapter 10

Day 40 **(A/N In the middle of** **writing** **this chapter I had an hour long** **power cut** **, a group of** **police cars** **kept driving past my house, and my neighbour's house alarm started going off... I** **thought** **the** **apocalypse** **had really begun. I'm so** **Melodramatic** **. xD)**

Tori POV

Cat's pregnancy mood swings have started kicking in, and anyone who knows Cat knows that she already had bad mood swings without being pregnant, so with the baby... they're _very_ bad. Yesterday, for example, she started to cry moments after making a joke. It was so strange, she was literally laughing one second and sobbing the next. Then she spent the next half an hour apologising for it. It was kinda sad.

Any form of mood swings would be better than what's happening today. It's like something in her brain just switched, and she was suddenly depressed. The light in her eyes, which we'd spent the last few weeks trying to bring back, was suddenly gone again. As soon as she'd woken up, she ran and hid inside her tent and refused to come out since. That was about 6 hours ago, we're all starting to worry as she isn't replying when we try to talk to her and she holds down the tent zip every time we try to open it. Jade keeps offering to cut a hole in the mesh to climb in through it, but I think we've all just agreed to leave her be. Actually, they agreed. I'm still sat outside the tent, just waiting. I don't think she even knows I'm here.

A sudden sob tells me that she's crying again, I can hear her though the wall of the tent. It's horrible to hear her cry, well it's horrible to hear anyone cry, but especially your girlfriend. Its even worse when there's nothing you can do about it because said person is shutting you out.

In between her sobs I can hear her humming out a small tune, not one I'd ever heard of before, but it makes sense 'cause it sounds sad and I'm not one to listen to sad music. I didn't really think Cat was either, but I guess she must have had times at home where she was in tears due to her regular mood swings, and decided to listen to some more depressing songs. ( **Song: "His Daughter" by Molly Kate Kestner)**

 _"If there's a God out there."_ She started to sing. I could barley hear the lyrics through her sobs, but I could get the general vibe of the song.

 _"Please hear my prayer._

 _I'm lost and I'm scared,_

 _And I've got nowhere else to run._

 _I've come a long, long way._

 _But I'm not sure I can be the best mother..._

 _So if you're listening, could you give a helping hand?_

 _to-"_ The last line was completely inaudible as Cat's sobs overtook the sound of her voice, but the snippet was enough to tell me why she's crying. She's scared about becoming a Mom.

"Cat?" I called out to her, for the millionth time.

After a few moments of silence, she slowly replied. "Y... you heard that didn't you?"

"Uhuh." I nodded, gulping back my own tears from hearing her in so much emotional pain. "Please let me in. Please." I heard a shuffle from the tent, and the sound of the zipper lowering. Slowly, I walked over to the tent 'door' and climbed in. "Hi Cat." I said calmly, looking at the small room she'd set up for herself. There was a blanket on the floor and a small collection of pillows and a single candle in the middle.

"Hi." She looked up at me, her eyes puffy and red from crying.

"You know you're going to be a great Mom Cat." I told her, holding her smaller hands in mine.

"How are you so sure?"

"You're the best with children." She smiled. "Remember the Diddly-Bops? And all those plays we've put on for the local Elementary School? You're always the one helping the kids out and engaging with the audience."

"I guess so." Cat sniffled. "But they were all toddlers and children, that's a lot different to a baby. I don't know how to look after a baby."

"No one does until they've experienced it." I comforted, moving my thumb in a circular motion on the back of her hand. "And we'll all be here to help. That baby isn't just your responsibility, you have 5 others to help you. From baby years till they're all grown up."

"Even the boys?"

"Someone's got to get defensive about her dating or teaching him how to shave, depending on the gender obviously."

"That's too far in the future." Cat smiled slightly. "They aren't even born yet, I don't want to think about them as a teenager."

"Oh god, the teenage years." I shook my head jokingly. "Those are always the worst."

"Tori." She giggled. "We're teenagers still."

"Double oh god! That means they're gonna act like we do now!"

"Hehe. Stop it Tori, that's a while yet."

"Either way, I hope they turn out like you." I rested my head on her shoulder. "Happy and bubbly."

"I just want them to be healthy." Cat placed her hand on her stomach. "That's all."

* * *

Day 65 

No POV

A few weeks had past since then, and with each passing day the group got more agitated and just wanted to leave the store and make a run for it. However, Cat's morning sickness decided to kick in a week ago on the morning they tried to leave, and after agreeing that they didn't want to have to put her though more hell by making her have to deal with it all on the road, the gang stayed put in the store for a little while longer.

"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Andre yelled suddenly, throwing his toy guitar into the wall. "We need to get out of here!"

"We can't." Tori replied sadly, sad next to Cat, who was asleep curled in a ball clutching her stomach, her dehydration was too obvious to ignore. "She's too ill."

"I know." Andre sighed, looking at his broken guitar in despair. "I'm going to get another one of these." He got up started walking towards the toy isle to get another one of the plastic guitars from the shelf.

"How long do you think her morning sickness is going to last?" Robbie asked.

"I'm not a pregnancy expert Robbie." Tori sighed.

"It started on her 7th week, like it's meant to." Jade started. "She'll probably get it until the baby's born, but the worst should be gone by her 14th week."

"How do you know all that?" Beck asked his girlfriend.

"I had to look after my Mom when she was pregnant with my brother." She shrugged.

"Wait she's on her 8th week now so that's." Tori started the simple maths in her head. "6 more weeks?! We can't stay here for 6 more weeks! That's like a month and a half!"

"With any luck, it'll be gone before the 14th week." Jade replied calmly. "We've gotta remember that this is harder on Cat then it is on us."

"I really can't stay here another 6 weeks."

"Mhhm." Cat started to stir from her mid-day nap. The pregnancy was really effecting her body, even though she was only 8 weeks in.

"Hey Catty." Tori kissed her girlfriend's forehead. "How you feeling?"

"Like I'm gonna puke." She replied bluntly, scowling and rubbing her stomach. Cat practically wanted to kill whoever had termed it 'morning sickness.' She felt like she had the most terrible hangover all the time. She was nauseous and liable to vomit at the slightest provocation. She couldn't even cook her own food without the oder making her wretch and heave. And it lasted all damn day. How could anything so natural feel so bad? It was worse than gastric flu, at least with the flu you knew it would be over in a few days. This could go on for another seven months, with the worse ending within a few weeks.

"Let's get you to the toilets then."

"Kay-" She cut herself off as she quickly brought her hand to her mouth and suddenly took off towards the toilets.

"This is gonna be a long 6 weeks."


	11. Chapter 11

3 Weeks Later (86)

Tori POV

Robbie's been using one of the store calender's to work out what the day is, which has actually been quite helpful. So far, he's worked out that it's been 86 days since the cloud hit in February, making today May 14th... also known as my 17th birthday. I'm not sure if I should bring that up to the others, I'm no in the mood for the attention but maybe celebrating something will be good for us. I kinda wish my birthday wasn't the first one since this all started, but Jade, Robbie and Beck's birthdays were all before it, and Cat and Andre's aren't until June.

I watched as Robbie pulled out his pen and crossed off the day from the calendar beside his bed, maybe he'd notice so I don't have to decide whether to bring it up or not. "What day is it Rob?" Beck asked, stretching his arms up as he climbed off of his and Jade's airbed.

"14th of May." Robbie replied, putting the calendar down and getting off of his own bed.

"14 of May." He repeated. "Why does that stand out to me?" I felt my mouth go kinda dry as he pounded it. "14th of Tori! It's your birthday."

"Oh yeah." I said dismissively, unsure whether to act happy or sad over it.

"Oh my God! How did i forget?!" Cat squealed, pulling me off of my bed and into a hug, and then a kiss. It was full on, open-mouthed, almost sexual kiss. And I loved it. I loved the way her small body melted into mine. The way our lips fit like two puzzle pieces. The way she relented as I played with her hair and held her tighter and tighter. When we broke away after what seemed like ages she looked at me...

"Whoop whoop." Jade whistled jokingly, very quickly ruining the mood.

"Uhuh." The sound left my lips before I could stop it. That was definitely the most heated kiss we've shared, both of us not ready to go further than a make out session. Cat's face was as red as her hair when she pulled away, obviously slightly embarrassed by her intensity.

"Happy Birthday." She mumbled, looking away from me.

"Thanks Baby." I smiled, pulled her chin up to look at me and locking my lips with hers again.

* * *

1 Week Later (Day 93)

No POV

At this point, the gang absolutely loathed each other, and the store they were trapped in. The only time they seemed to acknowledge each other's existence was when it was time to eat (they'd even moved their beds apart so that everyone slept separate as to not go mad in their sleep). Cat felt as though it was all her fault, because the only reason they were staying there was to wait until her sickness had passed, but every time she tried to talk about it, the others assured her it was okay. However, they would then admittedly walk away, as that simple conversation was enough social interaction for the day.

Each person had seemed to keep themselves entertained on their own. Robbie had made a logbook and wrote up an entry for everyday since the apocalypse began to help him cope with the passage of time. Cat had managed to fill a sketch book with little drawings and doodles, moving onto a second in the last few days. Jade had began to write up lots of film and movie scripts, like she used to at school. Tori was reading all the books in the store about everything and anything. Andre was working on various sports related tricks, like spinning a basketball on his finger. And Beck was incised on trying to make an escape plan, but without a map it was becoming very difficult. "How are there no maps, globes or even a keying of the USA in this store?!" Beck randomly yelled in despair.

"Is that what you've been looking for the last few days?" Robbie asked, looking up from his logbook.

"He's been saying it every other minute." Jade rolled her eyes.

"Really?" Robbie said, confused, before remembering this is the first conversation he'd had with the other boy in the last week. "Oh, well I could just draw you one."

"You can?" Beck asked slowly

"Yeah, I can draw the whole thing from memory, state lines and all." He said nonchalant, yet in the nerdiest way possible.

Beck quickly jumped to his feet. "You could have mentioned that before!" He yelled in anger over how he spent the last few days searching.

"You never asked!" Robbie snapped back.

"I- oh forget it!"

* * *

"That's actually pretty sick Rob'." Andre complemented the afro-haired boy once he'd finished drawing his detailed map of the USA on a sheet of paper. "I can barely remember 5 states and where they are, not draw all 50 of them."

"48. I didn't draw Alaska and Hawaii." Robbie said, handing Beck the map.

"Hey girls." Beck beckoned ( **A/N he...BECKoned haha...sorry)** the girls over to them and laid out the map on the floor in front of him.

"Do we have to?" Jade growled.

"Yes." Beck replied bluntly, as the girls made their way over to him. "We need a plan."

"According to Dean-" Robbie started, catching Cat suddenly tense up at in the corner of his eye before Tori wrapped her arm around her. "-the separation border line runs across the boarders of Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California." He reached across and drew a red line over the north state line of California, Nevada and Utah. Next he drew a line along the west state lines of Utah and Arizona.

"We need to find a way from here." Beck marked a dot just below LA, in Venice (where they were). "To here." He marked the border on Arizona. "It's the shortest distance."

"It's best to not try and cross it on a road, as it seems like that's where it will be most guarded." Jade pointed out.

"So you're suggesting we drive across the Arizona desert?" Beck raised an eyebrow at his girlfriend.

"She's got a point." Robbie said. "The roads will most likely be the most guarded at the separation border. Plus the gas cloud only reached half way though Arizona, so it'll be safer to drive though."

"We need a more detailed map to plan a route." Jade pointed out.

"We'll just have to drive and try and work it out from there." Beck sighed.

"That map was so helpful." Tori said sarcastically, laughing slightly.

"Don't." Beck scowled at her. After the amount of time he spent looking for one, he wasn't in the mood.

"You feel up to leaving yet Lil'Red?" Andre asked the girl hopefully.

Cat started to nod when Tori cut in. "No, she's been sick twice today Andre, we can't put her though it."

"I'm not a baby." Cat cut in. "But... I guess I don't want to be vomiting when we're stuck in a car." She sighed.

"It's alright Cat." Andre said. "I just wanted to ask."


	12. Chapter 12

A week later (Day 100) ( _Cat is now 13 weeks along for reference)_

As they did every morning, the gang went to the two sets of toilets in the store. Girls in the 'Women's' and the boys in the 'Men's'...obviously. While the girls were changing in their separate cubicles, Cat's big brown eyes lit up in realisation over the events, or lack of, so far during the day. "Guys." Cat called over the cubicle wall to the other two girls "I haven't thrown up today."

"Well done?" Said Jade quizzically, her morning-dazed-brain confused to why Cat was telling them this.

"Or last night." Cat smiled to herself slightly.

"Wait." Jade released what Cat meant. "Your morning sickness is clearing up!"

"Yup." Cat replied.

"YES!" Tori suddenly yelled from her own cubical. "Sorry Cat, but I really want to get out of here."

"It's alright." Cat giggled. "I'm not feeling nauseous either. I think we're ready to leave."

"That's a week earlier than we expected." Tori beamed.

"I'll be back." Jade announced, suddenly kicking open her cubical door and running out of the toilets.

"Where'd you think she's gone?" Cat asked Tori.

"Probably to tell the boys." Tori replied. Her thoughts were confirmed when they heard Robbie scream from the boys toilets telling Jade to get out.

" _Pack your stuff!_ " They heard Jade yell. " _Cat's ready to leave!_ "

* * *

Within the next 15 minutes, the whole gang were stood in the middle of the store, ready to make a run for it. Each person was carrying a decent sized bag on their backs and were wielding anything that could be used as a weapon. Beck was currently going over the plan for one final time so everyone was clear what it was. "Stick together and look around for a 7 seat car or a van. As soon as we spot one, everyone stand guard while we search for a key, if that fails, then Jade will try to hot wire it."

"You've gone over that plan 20 times Beck." Andre said. "Let's just run alright?"

"Okay." Beck sighed. "Come on." He started to lead the group out of one of the back entrances of the store and to the road behind it. As predicted, the road was filled with deserted cars, which should have keys in the engines, since their drivers would have been infected by the gas while they were still inside, and climbed out once they became zombies.

"Shit." Tori swore, pointing to the flock of zombies that were gathered at the end of the road. Since they'd seen them last, the zombies had changed. The months of existence had seemingly done a tole on them, erasing their past human-like appearance. Now they had a sloppy gait as they approached slowly. Their jaws dislocated showing their torn tongues and blood stained teeth. Skin peeled away from their bones and organs, showing their black hearts. Although they did not beat, you could see that organs were torn, how their blood had turn in to a thick turbid brown and how their stomach slowly digested the flesh around it.

"Stay away from them." Beck commanded. "And look for a big car." He started to run own the road, in the opposite direction to the Zombies, the rest of the group following. "Everyone doing okay?"

"Not quite!" Cat yelled from the back of the group, finding it hard to run with a bag that was practically the same size as her.

"Come on Baby." Tori grabbed her girlfriend's hand and started dragging her along with them.

"An SUV!" Jade suddenly dug her heels into the ground as they nearly ran straight past the 7 seater car.

"Woah!" Robbie gasped as he nearly ran into Jade's back because of her suddenly stopping.

Beck ran around to the drivers side and looked though the open door. "The key's in the ignition!" He announced, jumping into it.

"Tori!" Cat screamed as a zombie suddenly appeared behind the half-latina. The zombie's lack of eyelids gave her eyeballs a popping look as they swiveled in their sockets, searching for her next meal. Her hair was grey and pulled into a granny's bun, like some dear old lady, but whoever she had been, she was now the enemy. "Duck!" Tori did just as the zombie lurched forward. Cat swung her bat into the zombie, knocking it down.

"Everyone in the car!" Jade yelled, climbing in the passenger seat.

"Tori, Cat you're in the back." Robbie and Andre pulled the middle seats down, allowing the girls to climb into the trunk seats, before pulling them back up and jumping into their own seats. The gang quickly removed their bags and put them wherever there was room: the small trunk space behind Cat and Tori, the foot compartments, or the spare seat between Andre and Robbie.

"Everyone sorted?" Beck asked, putting on his seat belt and adjusting his seat. "This is going to be a rough drive."

"There's a map in here!" Robbie announced, pulling the folded-up road map booklet from the pocket on the back of Jade's chair.

"That's-" Beck started, before a sudden 'bang' came from the side of the car. "ZOMBIE!" He yelled as a zombie repeatedly hit it's fist against his door.

"Drive!" Jade yelled at her boyfriend, who quickly twisted the key and put the car into drive.

Because of the amount of cars on the road, Beck was constantly swerving to avoid them, and even taking the car off road at certain points when the road was completely blocked. From every inch of the streets came the signs that the apocalypse was upon them, the previously bustling city was now a derelict shell, a shadow of it's former glory. There were no burials, as there was no one left to approach a corpse, so they rotted right out in the open with their unseeing eyes staring at the group as they drove past them. All in all, it was a pretty hectic and mentally scaring drive. But with Robbie's map reading help, Beck managed to find his way.

* * *

After about 2 hours of driving, they'd made their way through LA and across the hilly terrain to a town called 'Palmdale'. Deciding that this place would be a good place to stop, the gang climbed out of the car, 200 metres from the town border, to discuss a route to take. "Look." Robbie pulled out the detailed map and ran his finger along a long road a few miles north that they could take. "This is Interstate 40, it runs all the way to the East Coast and will take us through the Arizona border."

"But as I pointed out, we can't cross the border on a main road." Jade said. "It'll be too guarded."

"Which is why-" Robbie opened the map further, and pointed to a town called 'Flagstaff' in Arizona. "We will go off of interstate 40 here and drive the rest of the way along Highways 89 and 160." He pointed to another road which lead north, and then turned off into a third which would take them across the North-East Arizona/New Mexico border. **(Please just google a map of Arizona roads to work out what the hell I'm on about. Also now would probably be a good time to mention that I'm British and know NOTHING about US geography, apart from that it's a lot of desert and mountains in the South West.)**

"So is that the plan?"

"I don't know any other one we've got." Tori spoke up.

"What are we going to do about food and water and shelter during all this?" Andre asked, pointing out that his stomach was rumbling. "We've only got enough food in our bags for like 2 days, 3 on a stretch."

"We need to save that." Tori pointed out. "In case we get stranded in the desert or something. For now, I guess we should go further into the town and raid one of the houses." She nodded to the decently sized town they'd arrived at. Seemingly, it was once a busy thriving neighbourhood, but now all that was left was rows of abandoned homes, where windows have long shattered by the roaming zombies. Doors hang on the few threads of their hinges and groan with pain at every sway. Weeds socialise across the cracking asphalt of every road, now the only sign of natural life in the town. From where they were stood, they could distantly see zombie's groaning and moaning as they dragged themselves between the derelict homes.

"Girls stay here by the car, while Andre, Robbie and I try to gather food for a lunch break. Then we'll get back into the car and keep driving." Beck said, picking up his bat.

"We aren't weak you know." Jade growled. "If anything, I'm the best fighter you've got."

"Which is why you're staying- someone needs to protect the van as well as yourselves. Us three," He motioned to himself and the other boys, "only have to worry about our own safety. We can just run from the danger, you need to stay and protect our stuff."

"Fair enough." Jade sighed, her boyfriend had a point, but running into the town still seemed more dangerous.

"Be careful, everyone." Andre said, looking around before taking off with the other boys to the closest house, to gather food.

"Right." Cat sighed, standing up off of the dusty ground, but immediately leaning against the side of the car to steady herself.

"You feeling okay Cat?" Jade asked, seeing her friend's discomfort.

"Ye-no." She scrunched her eyes shut in a feeble attempt to fight off her on-coming headache.

"Get back into the car and lay down for a bit Babe." Tori suggested.

"No... I need to help, I'm not weak Tori."

"No one thinks you're weak Cat." Tori pulled her girlfriend in for a comforting hug. "We just need to make sure you're okay constantly. Remember you're not just looking after yourself."

"I know."

"Could ya just go lay down already Cat?" Jade spoke up. "You two being love-dovey is making me queasy."

"We have to put up with you and Beck." Cat giggled, going on her tiptoes to peck Tori's lips. "Wake me when the boys come back."

* * *

With the boys

You'd think that during a zombie apocalypse, running towards where the zombies were wouldn't be a good idea. But nope, they needed food, and unfortunately that was in the town. Luckily for the boys though, all the zombies seemed to be preoccupied with the town centre, leaving the outskirts practically deserted, with only one or two in their eye line. In all respects of the word, this place was a ghost town. Just to stand amid the rotting town was enough to make you feel like a ghost, an unwanted spectre of the humans that came to take and never give, never to love the land or the nature, not to make a home or be respectful. In the still air of this natural depression the stain of their indifference had time to sink onto your skin. It was beautiful and melancholy, haunting in its desertion.

"We going into one house together, or 3 different ones separately?" Robbie asked, peering through the broken glass window of the home closest to him.

"One." Andre replied. "So we can cover each other in case of an attack." He hoisted his body up and over the shattered glass rims of the window frame and into the small home, the other two following. Turns out the town wasn't _fully_ abandoned as spiders had laced the walls with cobwebs of intricate beauty, claiming the empty home as their own.

The house itself was a mess: sections of ceiling hang limp in the stagnant air; fragments of plaster lie dry over a long untrodden floor, their only purpose to lay still in the California heat; there was also an inch of dust covering every inch, causing the asthmatic Robbie to loose his steady breathing pattern.

"Come on." Beck lead the boys though the room and into the adjoined kitchen. "Search the cupboards for anything we can eat now. No out of date stuff, and nothing that needs cooking."

A pile of cereal boxes, canned tuna, crackers, peanut butter, canned fruit, bottled water and various other long-lasting foods started to form on the lonely table in the middle of the room as the boys raided the kitchen. "This should last us the day." Robbie said, grabbing an armful of food and climbing back out of the house, followed by Beck and Andre.

Before they made it 10 metres away from the town and towards the car, they'd managed to attracted the attention of some of the un-dead residents. However, with piles of food in their arms, they had no way to defend themselves. "Just start running!" Beck commanded, picking up speed to complete the rest of the roughly 200 metre run. "Drop the food at the car and then turn back." His breath came in small spurts, hot and nervous. Behind him, he could hear the baying groans and jeering laughter of his enemies. His lungs and heart were pumping, but the air didn't seem to be enough as he sprinted forward, panic trembling in his exhausted limbs.

Once they reached the car, they turned around to see that a group of 10 zombies were only about 20 metres behind, which meant their running had not been in vain. "They've gotten faster." Andre spoke up, dropping the food by the car and turning to fight. By this point, Jade and Tori had jumped to their feet, taking the place of the near-collapsed Robbie. "Where's Cat?" Andre asked as the zombie's kept approaching.

"In the car." Jade replied bluntly. "She wasn't feeling great, probably asleep now."

"They're too close for us to wake her now." Beck sighed, still low on breath. "Let's fight."

The group of four (Andre, Beck, Tori and Jade) sprinted forward to the oncoming horde, mentally agreeing that when it comes to the fight there's no honour, no code. All that matters is the win and we take nothing for granted.

Then the first blow came, as Jade threw a pair of scissors into one of the zombie's head. The sight of it passing straight through the rotted skull was a horrific one, but as the creature fell to the ground, the gang knew that was 1 down and 9 to go. Beck and Andre, still exhausted from their run, managed to muster up enough strength to knock down 4 zombies between them, whilst Tori did the same with another 1. Jade pried her scissors from the 1st zombie's skull and pushed them into the black heart of a seconded, killing the 7th zombie of the horde. Just as Beck turned to gape at his girlfriend's hand on combat,when another zombie managed to club him around the head with the torn off arm of one of his fallen comrades, knocking Beck out cold. In a moment of pure anger and rage, Jade threw her scissors at lightning speed into the Zombie's eye, killing him in a painful manner. As Tori and Andre finished off the final 2 zombies, Jade dragged her boyfriend's unconscious body back to the car.

"I told you to wake me!" Cat yelled as she bundled out of the car, finally awoken by the sound of fighting.

"Not the time!" Jade chocked out, panicking over what to do about her unconscious boyfriend.

"Here." Cat raced forward and crouched down beside Beck. "He needs to be in the recovery position." She started to bend Beck's limbs in the appropriate way and rolled him onto his side.

"Is that the right way?" Jade chocked out though her tears that had formed over seeing her boyfriend hurt.

"My brother used to knock himself out a lot." Cat said calmly. "I know what I'm doing."

"Is he okay?" Tori and Andre asked simultaneously as they approached Cat, Jade and Beck.

"He'll be fine." Cat remained calm. "What happened to Robbie?" She asked, motioning to how Robbie was laying on the ground a few metres away from her, trying to regulate his breathing.

"Asthma." He chocked out. "Plus... running... equals... this."


	13. Chapter 13

With Beck still unconscious and Robbie trying to regain his breath; the remaining four members of the group removed the zombie corpses from the vicinity, dragging the green-tinted bodies away and piling them up back in the town outskirts so that they weren't close to the car.

After Tori and Cat had hauled the last zombie away, they'd started to trek back the 200 metres to the car, from the town. "You feeling okay Cat?" Tori asked her girlfriend, seeing her naturally olive face now paler than a sheet of paper.

In response, Cat attempted a shaky nod, starting to stumbling back to the car, but with each step her stomach tightened and ached all the more. She kept swallowing, and her throat kept clenching, but no matter what she could not stop the warm feeling rising through her chest. Then she could taste it at the back of her mouth. Cat buckled over. A warm, clouded, cream coloured liquid spilled from her mouth.

"Oh Cat." Tori said sympathetically, holding back Cat's dulled-red-hair as her stomach emptied itself.

"I'm sorry." Cat choked out once she was finished, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. "I thought I was better."

"We all did Baby." Tori smiled weakly, wrapping an arm around Cat to support her. "Let's take you back to the car, so you can lay down."

"Kay kay." Cat whispered, letting Tori guide her away from the town and back to the car.

Once they reached the car, Andre offered them some of the food they'd gathered from the house. Deciding that they needed to eat, Cat and Tori joined him, Jade and Robbie in a small circle beside the car and started to eat some of the cereal from one of the boxes. They ate in relative silence, the worry over Beck's health growing constantly. "He should be awake now." Jade growled, standing to her feet. "Why isn't he awake?!"

"It was a hard hit." Andre cringed, remembering the sight of the detached zombie arm hitting his friend's head and knocking him out.

"We've done all we can for him." Cat said quietly, still not feeling great from her 'morning' sickness.

"YOU COULD DO MORE!" Jade suddenly screamed. "YOU WEREN'T EVEN THERE TO HELP US FIGHT!"

"Wow Jade." Tori said, defensively standing in front of her girlfriend. "Cat put him in the recovery position, she's done more than you."

"I KILLED THE ZOMBIE THAT HURT HIM!" Jade continued to yell, edging forward towards Tori

"Jade." Tori tried to calm the angry goth. "Stop yelling, you'll attract attention from-" Jade cut her off by quickly raising her had in a fit of anger and hitting Tori across the face. The slap was as loud as a clap and stung her face. It had been an open-handed smack and it had left a red welt behind. Just below her eye was a small cut where one of Jade's rings had caught her. Tori staggered backwards, clutching her face, eyes watering.

"Oh god." Jade gasped, shocked over what she'd done. "I...I didn't mean that, I was angry... Oh god Vega."

"Leave it." Tori snapped back, turning away from Jade and climbing into the back of the car, shutting the door in Jade's face as she tried to go after her.

Jade looked around to the others for help of what to do, but they were all giving her cold and shocked glares. Catching Cat's eye, she could see the red-head shake her head at her, and then turn to the car to go comfort her girlfriend. "Tell her I'm sorry." She choked out. Cat turned her head and briefly nodded, before climbing into the back of the car also.

In that moment, Beck started to awaken, his head throbbed. The pain felt like someone had taken a knife to his skull. Squeezing his eyes shut, he willed the pain to go away. The rest of the world became detached, all he could concentrate on was the pain rooted deep in his head. He could barely hear the people talking around him. All he felt, all he knew was the pain of that moment. "Beck!" Robbie called out his name, seeing the slight movement come from the previously still boy.

"What?" Jade spun on her heel to see her boyfriend slowly trying to sit upright, his eyes barely open, using one hand to try and block out the sun. "Beck!"

"Hey Babe." Beck said slowly, his head spinning. "What happened?"

"You got me so worried." Jade choked out, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend's body. "Never get hurt again."

"I'll try." Beck joked, slowly opening his eyes more.

* * *

The rest of the day was a tense affair. Tori was ignoring Jade, which made the goth angry and therefore ignore the brunette back. Cat spent most of her time trying to get the two to talk to each other, while the boys stayed out of it, as to be neutral.

Shortly after everyone had eaten, the group stated to drive on again, with Jade driving this time because of Beck's head injury. They drove though Palmdale, up 'Highway 14' then along 'Highway 58' and eventually onto 'Interstate 40', the road which would take them the whole way to Arizona. Of course, they couldn't drive the whole way in one day without a break, so once they'd reached The Colorado River state line, they stopped the car outside an apartment complex, deciding that it'd be a better place to sleep than cramped together in the car.

They made their way up the stairs to the top floor of the apartment building, feeling as if that would be more secure from zombies. When the gang climbed the final set of stairs, Jade used her hair clips to pick open the locked door of the apartment, and pushed it open. Unlike the rest of LA, this place seemed as if it were untouched by the zombies, the only sign of neglect being the trace of dust on the floor. The apartment door revealed a hallway with a large doorway on the left (leading to an open planned kitchen/lounge), and 3 doors in the right side further down the corridor.

Scouting around the house with a flashlight, the group discovered each room together, in case they were caught off guard by anything. Starting off by walking through the left doorway and into the lounge/kitchen area, which was elegant in a minimalist sort of way. The room had a clever design which gave the illusion of an impressive space, despite the lack of room in the apartment, and seeing that is was clear of any threats, the gang turned back around to look in the rooms on the right side of the hallway.

They look in what they thought must be a cupboard, but instead on the other side was a bedroom. It had clearly belonged to a child, and a loved one at that. There were so many posters of the Liverpool ( **A/N An English 'soccer' team for the American readers)** Football Club on the walls that they really weren't too sure of the paint colour behind them. The bed was not pushed up against a wall but more central with an elaborate mahogany headboard. On the night stand was The Prisoner of Azkaban book, and on newspaper was a pair of cleated boots still with residues of mud on the sides. Yet the bed itself had no covers and over it all lay a thick layer of thin layer dust. Not a footfall had disturbed this room in some time. The group looked to one another, faces wiped of all emotion and without a word closed the door.

"So, a family lived here." Robbie spoke up, leading the group though the next door, into a slightly larger blue master bedroom with beautiful murals on the wall, hand painted by someone who knew what they were doing. It was a clear sign of a parents room, and by the look of the photos littered around the room, two parents who deeply loved each other.

"And now, they're dead. Or at least infected." Jade said darkly, maybe even too darkly for her.

"We're basically in Arizona now." Cat began hopefully. "Most of that was evacuated and maybe-"

"The gas cloud still hit the West side. Only people East of Phoenix were evacuated." Beck said, shaking his head sadly as the door on the room and opening the 3rd one. It was a simple bathroom. Functional and bare of any frills or unnecessary comforts, just a bathroom. They shut the door and then walked back to the lounge area, taking various seats on the couch and chairs in the room, the first properly cushioned place they'd sat in months. Needless to say, their dismal looks were quickly replaced with those of relaxation as their bodies sunk into the furniture.

* * *

After sitting on the chairs for the better half of an hour, the gang finally stopped ignoring their huger and started to raid the kitchen for anything they could eat and throwing anything they couldn't out of the window. "This fridge looks pretty empty to me." Beck said, opening the no-longer cold, unlit fridge.

"We can't eat anything from in there anyway, it'll have gone off." Tori said, looking past the boy. "But that is pretty empty for a family."

"You don't think someone's already raided it, do you?" Andre asked.

"No way, the front door was locked and there's no sign of anyone being here for months. Maybe they were about to leave for a long holiday and had to clear out the fridge." Jade shrugged, pulling a box of crackers and peanut butter out of one of the cupboards.

"There's one way to check." Tori commented, rolling her eyes and pointing to the calendar hug on the far kitchen wall.

Cat reached over and pulled the calendar off of the wall, looking down the page to the day where the gas cloud hit. "Says here they were on their 3rd day of holiday to England when the gas..." Sudden realisation hit her like a truck. "That means they're still alive!"

"Oh thank god." Robbie replied. "I'd hate to think about how many got infected, and died because of it. It's good to know that some people made it out."

"Like we will." Beck spoke up. "We're going to make it out of here alive."

"You sound like Robbie when we had that wacky sleepover at Sikowitz." Cat giggled, referring to the time their improv teacher invited them over to his home for a sleepover, and Robbie had pretend to be a motivational speaker who drank a beverage that gave him jelly legs.

"Didn't you chose that his character though Cat?" Tori asked, smiling at her girlfriend's happiness.

"Yup."


	14. Chapter 14

The next morning (Day 101)

As soon as they'd all woken up and eaten the little amount of food left in the apartment, the gang all went back to the car and continued the drive eastwards. With Beck's headaches still coming and going, Jade drove again, taking the gang over the Colorado River and about 150 miles along 'Interstate 40'. Originally, she had planned on not stopping for a few more hours, but fate had to have its way.

"Shit." Jade swore under her breathe, looking at the low fuel gauge on the dashboard in front of her.

"What's wrong?" Beck asked from the passenger seat, trying to keep his eyes open though the flashing colourful spots caused by his headache.

"We've got no fuel left." Jade replied, sighing.

"None at all?" Andre asked from the seats behind.

"Obviously not." Jade rolled her eyes. "'Cause we're still moving. We have enough for another few miles."

"Turn in here then." Robbie spoke up, pointing to the sign for a small town called Ash Fork.

Jade turned the car into a slip road and pulled up to what could only be described as a sleepy little town. There couldn't be more than 1000 people living there, as when Robbie pulled out the map the small town's name wasn't anywhere to be seen. Compared to this place, Palmdale (the last town they'd stopped in) looked like a living and thriving town, whereas Ash Fork was practically being run by dust mites.

The lack of human care had definitely taken its tole on the town. Nearly every building was peppered with dry rot, the occasional window was still in possession of its glass but most had broken so long ago that there was no trace of the shards on the rotting plank floors. In most homes the roofs had partially caved in or at the very least they sagged like a disappointing soufflé. The only welcome was the howl of the wind and the only future of the town was to be slowly beaten by the weather and eventually succumb to gravity without even a witness or person to mourn its passing.

"We're not staying here." Jade said as she parked the car on the outskirts of the town. "We just need a new ride. Everyone grab your bags and help me to find a new one."

With an abundance of moans and groans, the rest of the gang hauled them selves out of the car, stretched their limbs after the 2 hour drive and pulled their backpacks onto their backs to look for a new car to use. Travelling around in a pack for comfort, they scouted each of the short roads, fighting off any zombies that they went past, until they stumbled across a house with a small muddy white van on it's drive way. "This'll do right?" Tori asked the group, walking towards the house.

"We've gotta find a key first." Beck sighed, rubbing his temples because of his head ache. "Andre and I will go into the house and-"

"You've done everything so far." Tori cut in. "Let me and Jade go for once."

"You... what?" Jade asked, genially confused as to why Tori was suddenly acknowledging her again.

"I'm excepting your apology." Tori cleared up. "But that doesn't mean that I won't leave you if there are zombies."

"I wanna come too." Cat spoke up, getting a simultaneous _'No'_ from the rest of the group, making her pout.

"Sorry Cat." Tori said, pecking Cat on the lips before her and Jade dropped their bags by the van and walked up the driveway and to the house.

* * *

Jade POV

Climbing though a shattered window, we entered the house. Tori kept walking though the dust ridden room, but my eyes were fixated on the broken glass which still remained on the window rims. Sure this isn't the first broken glass I've seen since the apocalypses, but it always brings back the memories. Breaking glass was the anthem of my childhood. A day never went by without the sound of a beer bottle smashed into a thousand glittering fragments, as a result of my father's uncomfortable emotions. Even now the sight or sound of it transports me back to unwanted places, troubled times. It takes me back to when breaking glass showered my dreams in sharp slivers, pierced the smooth souls of my childish feet and lay without remorse on the floor of my home. I hate my past and my bastard of a father. I hated him even more once he left, my Mom was 1 month pregnant with my brother, leaving Mom depressed and for me to look after her. _Argh I thinking about it again. All because of this stupid-_

"Jade?" Tori cut in, looking over at me and snapping me out of my trance. _Shit, she knows something is up._ "Are you crying?" _I'm crying._ I raised my hand to my face and felt the wet streak running from my eye.

"Hay fever." I replied coldly, wiping my eyes and walking past her to look for the van keys.

"I doubt that." Tori replied, following me into the home's hallway. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just thinking." I sighed.

"About what?"

"I.. I really don't want to talk about it okay... please." I replied. _I sound like a baby._

"It's your choice." She said sweetly. "I'm here if you wanna talk."

"No." I shook my head. "You've already become Cat's outlet, you don't need me too." I took a second to think. "You need someone to outlet to."

"I have Cat." She replied. "We talk to each other. So far it's been most one sided for her, but it's understandably, as she needs the help more than me."

"Girls?!" Beck called in, from outside. "You found it yet?"

"Wait!" I yelled back, looking around the hallway for the keys and then grabbing the set with the little van logo on them. "Yep!"

"Come back then!" Beck yelled.

"God, give us time to move first." I rolled my eyes, opening the front door and holding it open for Tori.

"You two okay? Were there any Zombies in there?" Beck started to ramble as we approached the van and other 4 teens.

"We're fine." I replied bluntly, cutting him off by handing him the keys. "What about you?"

"There was one, but Robbie knocked him out." Beck replied nonchalant, nodding to the zombie body 10 metres away. He turned on his heel, unlocked the van and pulled open the back door. Peaking over his shoulder I could see that the van was half filled with various pieces of building equipment, such as wood, tools and metal rods. Clearly the van's owner was a builder of sorts.

"Let's get all of this out then." Andre spoke up, climbing into the van and passing one of the wooden beams backwards to Beck and I.


	15. Chapter 15

No POV  
The next length of the drive, with Andre behind the wheel, took the gang along the road to near Flagstaff. This is where Jade originally wanted to take a break, so Andre pulled the van to a stop and climbed into the back of the van with the others to check the route on the map.

"We could continue along this road (Interstate 40) the whole way to the New Mexico state line, where the zombie barrier is, but that will probably be highly guarded as any zombies going that way would probably do so by walking on the road." Beck started. "So instead, we'll take turn off here." He pointed slightly further along the map than where they were, "to Highway 89 and go North until we reach Highway 160 which will take us to here." His finger landed on the state line between Arizona and New Mexico, only about 10 miles south of the 'Four Corners Monument'.

"That's going to take us straight though the desert. Let's hope we can find cars when we're out her when this one runs out." Tori sighed.

"I doubt there will be too many places to stop as well, so lucky we haven't used any of the food in our bags yet." Jade added.

"Speaking of food." Robbie said. "I'm starved."

"Me too." Cat spoke up.

"Let's raid a house then." Beck said, climbing out of the van. "We need to be careful here though, this place isn't as empty as the others."

He wasn't wrong. Flagstaff was at one point a large town, much larger than the others that they'd stopped at, so they had to be extra cautious as to not be attacked by zombies. Deciding that it would be best to spend as little time as possible here, the gang all bundled out of he car with their weapons and ran to a local supermarket. The dusty shop was a minefield for the clumsy, shelves knocked over and laying across the floor, with mouldy food scattered all over it. It was in no way as big as Wankos, but there were shelves of canned food and drinks for them to grab. Jumping over the knocked over racks and displays, the group grabbed as many plastic bags as they could and stuffed them with anything edible food, before running back out of the store again.

As they all left through the door, they were greeted with a large horde of zombies which was coming closer and closer, their smell becoming even more unbearable. They had deformed bodies, and limbs sticking out at odd angles. Their bloodshot eyes darted all over the place, looking for food. Reaching arms, flesh peeling, in short, they were terrifyingly grotesque. Groans and moans came from their open mouths, wanting human meat.

"Go go! Run!" Jade started yelling to the others.

"They're in the way of the van though!" Cat yelled back.

"Shit- well we'll have to push though then." Beck gulped, he was right again, they were too close now to just go around them. Slinging his plastic bag onto his shoulder, Beck charged forward swinging his bat left and right. Robbie, Jade, Cat, Tori and then Andre all ran behind him, hitting any zombies that tried to come close to them. The living-dead swarming towards them and stumbling with every step, their limbs were being knocked off with ease by the teen's hits, their bodies too weak and worn to keep them attached.

They eventually reached the other side and climbed into their van with their bags, Robbie and Andre in the front and the other 4 climbing in the rear. "Everyone okay?" Robbie called back though the van divider as Andre started the engine.

"I think so." Beck replied shakily, looking around at the 3 girls in the back to check. "Cat?"

"I..." She started, before weakly shaking her head with one hand rested on her small baby bump.

"You didn't get hit did you?" Tori gasped, practically leaping to Cat's side despite the fact they were in a moving vehicle.

Cat once again shook her head, but was unable to say what she needed. "Shit. I know." Jade quickly dumped the contents of her plastic food bag onto the van floor and shoved it into Cat's hands for her to empty her stomach into.

Tori held back Cat's hair as she threw up into the bag. "Quick thinking Jade."

"Sorry." Cat chocked out, wiping her mouth. "The sight of their limbs and he's just making me feel more queasy than normal."

"It's okay Baby." Tori tied up the bag and threw it out of the van window. "Wait, _he_?"

"I'm not sure yet." Cat smiled weakly, a hand still resting on her little bump. "But I think it's a boy."

"We know what you'e gonna call him then." Beck chuckled. "Beck Jr."

"No way!" Robbie cut in from the passenger seat. "It'll be Robbie Jr."

"Boys." Jade rolled her eyes.

"Says the girl who suggested her own name for a girl." Cat stuck out her tongue at the older girl.

"I didn't, I said Elizabeth." Jade defended, crossing her arms, but unable to stop herself from smiling.

"Which is your middle name." Cat replied, smiling back.

"You have a middle name?" Beck looked quizzically at his girlfriend. "You always say you don't have one."

"It's a stupid name." Jade frowned.

"Then why would Cat name the baby it?" Tori laughed.

"Oh shut up _Victoria Dawn_."

"How did you find out about that?!"

"It's on your school record." Jade shrugged.

"How did you find my school records?"

"Just call her Jadelyn." Beck smirked.

"Oh go away Beckett." Jade said to her boyfriend, making Cat completely loose control and burst into laughter. "You too Caterina."

"Ah ha!" Andre finally spoke up from the drivers seat. "You can't get me for laughing can ya Jadelyn?"

"Or me." Robbie said. "Oh wait no, it's Robert."

"Try me Andreas ( **Pronounced Andre + us)**."

"Hehe." Cat giggled. "Our names are all nicknames."

"Most names are." Tori shrugged. "Did you know Trina's name is actually Katrina, so you two have similar names."

"If she called herself Kat too, then that would just be complected." Cat furrowed her brow slightly. "At least they'd be spelt differently I guess."

"I still think Beck jr has a nice ring to it." Beck spoke up.

"Wait until Jade gets pregnant." Cat shook her head jokingly.

"Why me? What about Vega? Why'd you think I'd get knocked up before her?" Jade shot back.

"Jade." Tori shook her head. "I'm dating Cat... even if we ever *cough* you know," Tori blushed and looked away from Cat. "we can't really-"

"Stop." Jade cut her off. "I got what you mean. And no Beck Jr."

"Damn it!" Beck chuckled.


	16. Chapter 16

The Next Day (Day 102)

The end of their horrible journey was in sight. They were now on Highway 160, only about 70 miles from the state border, and because of the clear roads it would only be a few hours until they made it there. They were now officially past the area in which the gas cloud reached, and into the 'evacuation zone' where people between the gas cloud and the state border were relocated eastwards before the zombie barrier was set up. This meant that apart from a few who wandered eastwards, the gang were now clear of zombies. However, this also meant that anything they stumbled across now would be completely empty, as past inhabitants would have packed up their stuff and left, rater than being turned into zombies. This also meant that if their van stopped worked, there would be no cars, resulting in a very very long walk to the border.

For this length of the drive, Robbie was behind the wheel with Beck in the passenger seat, leaving the girls and Andre sat in the back, singing various different songs to try and pass the time and keep the mood up beat. The choices of songs were certainly something, ranging from new music all the way to ABBA songs.

 _"_ _You are the dancing queen_

 _Young and sweet_

 _Only seventeen_

 _Dancing queen_

 _Feel the beat from the tambourine, oh yeah_

 _You can dance_

 _You can jive_

 _Having the time of your life_

 _Ooh, see that girl_

 _Watch that scene_

 _Dig in the dancing queen_

 _Dig in the dancing queen."_

The group burst into laughter as they finished the classic song, no idea who even suggested it or why they did so. "I really wanna dance now." Cat pouted, "But the van ceiling is too low."

"It's, what, 4ft high? I'm sure you'll fit." Jade joked, making fun of the smaller girl's height.

"I'm 5ft tall!" Cat shot back, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I was joking Kitty." Jade gulped, forgetting about Cat's mood swings.

"Kay." Cat slumped against the wall of the van.

The next few minutes, the gang sat in silence, the only noise coming from the roar of the engine of the van. That was until that stopped too. No matter how hard he tried, Robbie couldn't turn it back on again. "No gas." He sighed, leaning forward and putting his head in his hands.

"You're joking right?" Tori spoke up.

"No." Robbie shook his head, still in his hands.

"There's no other cars on the road for us to use." Beck gulped, looking though the windshield and onto the long empty road in front of them.

"I guess we need to start walking then." Andre groaned. "We'll find another car at some point."

Climbing out of the van with their backpacks, the gang started the walk through along the desert road, the cruel sun beating down on them, it's one malevolent eye unblinking, with not even a wisp of cloud to soften the harsh rays. Each step sunk into the searing sand, the air was thick and hazy, each breath like drowning in larva.

"How the fuck was it not this hot in that van?" Jade yelled out after 15 minutes of walking though the heat, sweat already starting to form on her face (which no one mentioned for the fear of getting yelled at).

"Air conditioning." Tori said back, using one of her hands to block the sun from her eyes.

"Nah shit Vega."

"Don't start arguing now." Robbie spoke up. "I don't know how long we're gonna be walking for and I can't be asked to hear you two yelling."

"Agreed." Cat spoke up.

"Let's hope we can find another car along this road." Beck sighed, kicking a pebble down the barren dry asphalt path.

Looking around at his friends sour faces, and remembering their earlier joy over singing, Andre opened his mouth to start singing _7 Years Old by Lukas Graham._ No real reason for the song choice, just wanting to lift their spirits with music.

 **(The song is a 'take it in turns at singing' kinda thing:)**

 **Andre:** _"Once I was seven years old my Momma told me_  
 _Go make yourself some friends or you'll be lonely_  
 _Once I was seven years old."_ He sung solo, looking over to Beck to continue the next part on his own.

 **eck:** _"It was a big big world, but we thought we were bigger_  
 _Pushing each other to the limits, we were learning quicker_  
 _By eleven smoking herb and drinking burning liquor_  
 _Never rich so we were out to make that steady figure."_ Beck's voice wasn't perfect, not being a singer, but it was soothing and even. He looked over to Robbie for the next part of the song.

 **Robbie:** _"Once I was eleven years old my daddy told me_  
 _Go get yourself a wife or you'll be lonely_  
 _Once I was eleven years old."_ Robbie sang, looking back to Andre to keep the song going.

 **Andre:** _"I always had that dream like my daddy before me_  
 _So I started writing songs, I started writing stories_  
 _Something about that glory just always seemed to bore me_  
 _'Cause only those I really love will ever really know me._

 _Once I was twenty years old, my story got told_  
 _Before the morning sun, when life was lonely_  
 _Once I was twenty years old."_ Andre finished singing and handed the song over to Jade.

 **Jade:** _"I only see my goals, I don't believe in failure_  
 _'Cause I know the smallest voices, they can make it major_  
 _I got my boys with me at least those in favor_  
 _And if we don't meet before I leave, I hope I'll see you later._

 _Once I was twenty years old, my story got told_  
 _I was writing about everything, I saw before me_  
 _Once I was twenty years old _"__ Jade sung, making eye contact with Tori to take over the next part of the song.

 **Tori: "** _Soon we'll be thirty years old, our songs have been sold_  
 _We've traveled around the world and we're still roaming_  
 _Soon we'll be thirty years old_

 _I'm still learning about life_  
 _My woman brought children for me_  
 _So I can sing them all my songs_  
 _And I can tell them stories_  
 _Most of my boys are with me_  
 _Some are still out seeking glory_  
 _And some I had to leave behind_  
 _My brother I'm still sorry."_ Tori sung, unable to not think of Cat when singing about 'her woman' Tori nodded to Cat to sing the next part.

 **Cat:** _"Soon I'll be sixty years old, my daddy got sixty-one_  
 _Remember life and then your life becomes a better one_  
 _I made a man so happy when I wrote a letter once_  
 _I hope my children come and visit, once or twice a month_

 _Soon I'll be sixty years old, will I think the world is cold_  
 _Or will I have a lot of children who can warm me_  
 _Soon I'll be sixty years old_  
 _Soon I'll be sixty years old, will I think the world is cold_  
 _Or will I have a lot of children who can warm me_  
 _Soon I'll be sixty years old."_ Her hand was rested on her small bump as she sang, emphasising the lyrics over her children. As she finished, she turned to Andre for him to finish the song the same way he started it.

 **Andre:** _"Once I was seven years old, Momma told me_  
 _Go make yourself some friends or you'll be lonely_  
 _Once I was seven years old."_ Andre sung, motioning for his friends to join in with the last line.

 **All:** " _Once I was seven years old."_ The 6 teens sung together, their voices blending perfectly. The singing really had worked to distract them from their troubles, taking them to a place of peace away from the dusty heat filled desert they were trudging though.


	17. Chapter 17

A few hours, and about 15 miles later, the biggest star had set, giving way to a thousand others and creating a sky of fire. The yellow ball of fire changed to hues of orange, and then almost tangerine with silhouettes of birds flew home across the it. It was the battle cry to the gathering night, that the only achievement of darkness was to make the already deadly desert, 100 percent more ominous and dangerous for the gang.

They continued trying to walk through the darkness, but their over-anxious brains (along with the exhaustion of walking) made everything around them intensified. The sound of a pebble being kicked sounded like a rattlesnake, the crack of a snapping twig made the group stop to check for any coyotes around them. They were hyper-aware messes, the anxiety like being hooked up to a cattle fence - not enough voltage to kill but sufficient to keep things uncomfortable. And yet, they kept walking until they couldn't walk any more.

As they reached a small patch of desert trees beside the road, the group agreed that climbing them would be safer than sleeping on the ground. The trees were all of a decent size, and slightly slanted, with small buds and collections of leaves scattered across the ranch tips. Each of them removed their backpacks and hung them on the highest branch they could reach before starting to climb up after them, being careful of each step as the branches were weak due from lack of water.

On their separate trees, they all found the sturdiest branch and sat along it, resting their backs on the trunk with their legs out along the length of the wood. It was in no way comfortable for them, but it was better than sleeping on the desert floor where the coyotes and snakes dwelled.

"Night guys." Robbie said from his tree between Andre and Beck.

"Night." The others echoed back.

* * *

The Next Morning (Day 104)

The sun rose like a flower opening, gifting its petals unto the world. Gazing toward the illuminated clouds, still beneath the ethereal glow, Tori felt a feeling of peace that she had been missing for the past few months.

Looking out across the cactus littered land in front of her on top of the the sandy ground that stretched as far as the eye could see. She'd had a surprisingly decent sleep considering the circumstances, however the direction of her tree meant that she was facing East and therefore as soon as the sun peaked over the horizon line, she was suddenly awoken by its intense light. She wasn't angry at it though, the desert sunrise was truly magnificent and calming, its hue ambitiously illuminating each crevice of the land. Birds chirped an explicit background melody. With breath paused in her lungs, she wished time would halt.

A small movement in the tree to her left informed her of Jade's awakening, turning her head slightly, she made eye contact with the newly awakened girl. "I hate mornings." Jade grumbled, trying to pull the neckline of her shirt over her eyes to block out the sun's rays.

"Just look at it." Tori chuckled.

Jade lowered the neckline and peaked over the top of it. "Woah." She breathed out, watching the yellow shining sun rising from the ground. It filled the sky with mighty colours of red and splashed the clouds with endless rays of pink. It was bright and mesmerising as it inviting them to stare, deep into the horizon.

"Yep, woah." Tori replied, watching the colours dance in the sky.

The muffled sound of something hitting the desert floor followed by a cry of pain suddenly interrupted the two girl's trance. "What the- Robbie?" Jade said, seeing a body on the ground on the tree behind her. Quickly, her and Tori climbed off of their trees and over to the base of Robbie's tree where he was laying.

"What happened?" Tori asked, bending down to Robbie, who was curled on the ground clutching his right arm.

"I fell." He replied though clenched teeth. "And.. ah." He winced as he tried to use his arm to help him sit upright.

"Here." Tori and Jade helped him to sit up against the tree base.

"Thanks." Robbie said, his teeth still clenched because of the pain.

"That's broken." Jade said bluntly, looking at how crooked Robbie's forearm was, as well as the large bump about halfway down it, as he tried to hold up it in his left hand.

"Uhuh." Robbie replied, his voice unusually high. "I did fall out of a tree onto it."

"Wait here." Jade said calmly, going back to her tree and grabbing a long-sleeved shirt from her bag and motioning tying the sleeves in a knot behind Robbie's neck.

"What... what are you doing?" Tori asked, slightly concerned over the very noose-like contraption Jade had just made.

"A sling." Jade replied, carefully wrapping the hem of the shirt around Robbie's arm, holding his elbow at a 90 degree angle. "That feel better?"

"Much." Robbie smiled weakly, the pain still prominent, but much lessened now that it was rested in a sling.

"You somehow always manage to surprise me Jade." Tori said. "Like how do you know how to make a sling out of a shirt?"

"Lets go wake the others." Jade suggested, ignoring Tori's question. "I'll wake Andre and Beck, you wake Cat."

"No way, I'm not falling for that again." Tori crossed her arms over her chest, remembering the last time she had to wake up Cat, and getting the full brunt of the pregnant girl's emotional outburst.

* * *

An few hours later, the gang had all woken up, eaten some of the food from their bags, and walked another 8 miles closer to the border. Somehow, the desert seemed to just keep getting hotter. Heat licked at their sunburned faces and coiled around their limbs like a great hot-blooded serpent. The ground smoldered and sent up a disorientating haze. Even the birds were silent and the grass stood still as if too hot to move.

"This is getting ridiculous now." Beck groaned, leading the group further along the desert road. "Why are there no cars anywhere?"

"We only found them before because drivers would have been converted while still inside." Robbie replied, the pain in his arm making him snappy. "This road is out of the gas cloud range, so no zombies. No zombies, no deserted cars."

"I know." Beck growled slightly, "I was just saying, that there's gotta be at least a house along here somewhere, where someone left a car."

"Should've been more specific then." Robbie rolled his eyes, hoisting his sling up to keep his arm in place.

"Sorry, your Majesty." Beck rolled his eyes. "You don't need to be all testy."

"Not really my fault. I've got a broken arm, I'm walking though a desert, and I'm running out a water!" Robbie practically yelled.

"We're all running out of water!" Beck yelled back.

"We're lucky we even have water." Jade cut in. "If we didn't stop at that store in Flagford, we'd have only had 1 bottle each."

"Please stop yelling." Cat whimpered. "I have a headache."

"You've had a headache for the last week." Robbie snapped.

"I'm pregnant." Cat lowered her voice and spoke though clenched teeth "Headaches happen a lot."

"Ya know, not yelling is a good idea." Andre spoke up, trying to calm everyone down.


	18. Chapter 18

They kept walking until night fell again, where they then fell asleep surrounded by their bags (with someone on watch for any dangerous animals). When the sun rose the next morning, the teens all woke up and continued dragging their feet along the sand covered road, dehydration starting the take its tole on them.

Until, eventually, 28 miles from the border, they found a car. Actually, they found a small town, which according to a sign was called Dennehotso. There were barely 50 houses in this tiny place, all completely empty after being packed up by their past residents, along with their cars. Apart from one house... one house which had one car still parked on it's driveway. No one cared why the car was left there. They just rushed into the house to find the keys and then got into the vehicle, stuffing their (now mostly empty) backpacks into the trunk. The car was very cramped, with Cat practically sitting on Tori's lap, but once again no one cared, they just knew that it would take them to the border and to safety. And that's all they needed.

In relative silence, they drove the remaining miles though the desert to the state border. The teens were all just so tired and so thankful that their horrible journey would be finally coming to the end. Just like looking forward to their first shower, full meal, and electricity usage, in months.

As they approached to the border the 5 metre high continuous barred fence, that prevented their crossing, came into view. On the other side of the barrier, there was a road for guards to patrol. Presumably no zombies had made it this far out for them to stop, so the amount of guards was minimal.

They bundled out of the car, abandoning their backpacks, and ran towards the barred fence, quickly trying to think of a way to cross it. However, all attempts were futile, which they guessed meant the border worked. "We can't get all this way to be stopped now!" Jade groaned, trying to squeeze between the close together bars of the border and failing miserable. It wasn't her fault, even the flattest person wouldn't be able to fit between them. Robbie did try though.

"WHY GOD WHY?!" Andre yelled, looking up to the sky in distress.

"What the-" They heard someone say from about 20 metres away on the other side of the border. Snapping their heads towards the camouflage-suited young man, they saw him running towards them, walkie-talkie in his left hand and a large gun in the other. "ZOMBIES SPOTTED!" The man yelled into his walkie-talkie, raising his gun as he ran towards were the gang were, stopping level with them on the other side of the border.

"We aren't zombies." Beck stammered out.

"Who are you then?!" The man announced, his gun still raised at the teens through the bars .

"We're from LA. We hid in a saferoom to survive the gas." Andre spoke up. "Lower your gun... please."

"No way. You could all be infected."

"We aren't green. Look." Tori motioned to her slightly tanned, but not green, skin. "We're talking too. Those infected can't."

The noise of car engines grew loud as a trio of jeeps suddenly raced over to the man on the other side of the fence, their doors opening to reveal another 6 men, also in army gear and wielding guns. 5 of the men were dressing the same as the first, but the 6th had a smart looking hat and a plain sage-green outfit, clearly the highest ranking member and leader. "What are you doing Smith?" One of the men yelled at the first man, "Shoot them." He cocked his gun and shot a bullet towards the teens.

"AH!" Andre yelled as the bullet lodged itself into his shoulder, making him fall to the ground in shock and pain.

"STOP!" Tori screamed, falling to her knees beside Andre and pulling pressure on his shoulder to stop the bleeding. "We aren't zombies!"

The camouflaged men all stood with their guns pointed at the teens though the bars, cautious of them. "How can we trust you?" The man who shot the bullet said.

"CAUSE WE AREN'T FUCKING GREEN!" Jade screamed, loosing any form of composure. "We've just spend the last few months of our lives running from those monsters, and we look nothing like them! We can talk for fuck sake, zombie's just groan and moan."

"Let us in before he bleeds out!" Tori yelled, her hands now covered in Andre's blood.

"Fine." The higher ranking man sighed. "There's a door about 100 metres that way." He pointed to his left. "We'll unlock it if you co-operate."

The group of teens all nodded, and with Beck carrying Andre, they walked the 100 metres to the thick metal door. With all the men's guns on them, they slowly walked though the door and to the other side of the barrier. "We're taking you to a Testing Facility." The leader announced. "Grab them." He commanded the other 6 men, who all shot forward and roughly pulled each of the teen's arms behind their backs (apart from Robbie, who only had his good arm secured).

They all knew that this was only a precaution, and didn't fight back or struggle against their restrictions. All apart from Cat. Cat, who was getting sudden flashbacks of her rape, and was squealing and squirming. "Stop moving girl!" The man who was holding her growled, trying to stop Cat's frantic movement.

"Get off me!" Cat cried out, trying to shake him off of her. Her eyes tightly shut and her breathing fast.

"Help me!" The man looked towards the higher-ranking man for assistance, who rushed forward and helped the other to restrain Cat.

"Stop! Please! Get off!" Cat cried out as the two men pushed her arms against her back to secure her in place, tears startng to fall down her cheeks.

"Stop!" Tori screamed out, unable to watch her girlfriend's suffering. "Let go of her!" She started to struggle against her own restricted.

"If you two don't co-operate, we'll shoot you all. Got it?" The leader spat out.

"She... she's been raped." Tori chocked out, watching the realisation flood the man's face. "Don't restrain her... please."

Both of the men immediately let go of Cat's arms and let her collapse to the floor in tears from the flashing memories. "Take the other 4 to the Testing Facility, and get him sorted in two of the jeeps." The leader nodded to Andre, who was still bleeding out from his shoulder. "We'll take these two in the other." The other men nodded in understanding and hauled Robbie, Beck, Andre and Jade into two of the jeeps and drove away. Leaving Cat, Tori and 3 of the men beside the border with the third jeep. "Let go of her." The man told Tori's restrainer, letting her run forward to comfort her girlfriend.

"It's okay Cat. You're okay. It's okay." Tori said repeatedly, sitting down beside Cat and pulling her into a hug.

"I'm s...sorry." The man who first restrained Cat stammered out, his face pale from guilt.

"You didn't know." Tori said back, still in a tight embrace with a sobbing Cat.

"Men, keep patrolling." The man in the sage suit told the two other men. "I can take them to the Testing Facility." The two men nodded to the higher-ranking man and shakily started walking away along beside the barrier to keep patrolling. "I'm sorry to hear about what happened to you Young Lady." The remaining man said, slowly sitting down in front of the girls and removing his hat, fully showing how he looked. He had a kind but stern sort of face, one that a kind father would have, with a head of greyish brown hair, signalling that he was about 50 years old, and brown doe-like eyes similarly to Cat's.

"It's okay." Cat spoke between chocked sobs, her head buried in Tori's shoulder.

"I had a daughter." The man continued. "She looked a little like you actually, she liked to dye her hair too." He motioned the what was left of the red in Cat's hair, now looking more like an ombre effect rather than full dye job.

"What happened to her?" Tori asked. "If you don't mind me asking."

"She unfortunately killed herself." His eyes started to slightly fill with tears. "Because of -."

"She was raped too wasn't she?" Cat spoke up, raising her head from Tori's shoulder and looking at the older man, trying desperately to wipe away the still falling tears.

The man nodded weakly. "She was sent into a depressive spiral which no one could save her from. You however, you seem to have someone who really cares for you." He smiled at the two girls. "And I'm sorry about how I treated you just then-."

"You didn't know." Cat looked down at the ground in despair. "Thank you for this though, Mr-"

"Johnson. David Johnson." The man said. "I might just be a soppy old man, but I will make it my personal mission that you and your friends are treated well."

"Thank you Sir." Tori smiled at the man.

"David, please. You kids must have been though hell, I don't want that suffering to keep going." David said comfortingly. "Though, I do need to take you to the Testing Facility." He sighed, standing up.

"What does that mean?" Tori said, helping Cat to her feet.

"They set up this Testing Facility a few miles away, to test anyone who tries to pass though claiming to not be infected. I'm convinced that you're fine, but it's all precaution."

"Has anyone else made it out?" Cat asked, her tears finally stopping.

"Not yet." David said. "And I don't think they will to be honest." He shook his head sadly. "Which begs the question over how you and your friends did survive."

The girls gave him a basic summary over the events of the past few months while he drove them to the 'Testing Facility'. It looked more like a hospital crossed with a prison, a decent sized white building surrounded by a high chain-link fence topped with barbed-wire loops. The jeep pulled up to an impressive wrought iron gate with spikes at the top. It opened electronically from inside the building. Unless you were some kind of ninja burglar the only way in was to buzz the intercom and announce your arrival. David pressed said buzzer and stated his name and why he was there, and the gate swing open for the jeep to drive in.

As the jeep pulled to a halt, beside the two others which brought the teens there, a group of more men with guns stormed out of the entrance towards the girls and David, going forward to take the girls inside. David held up one hand to stop the men, telling them to not touch Cat or Tori unless they were becoming a threat, and to do otherwise would result in disobeying orders. The men all gave each other slightly confused looks, but followed the instructions anyway, by guiding Cat and Tori into the white building without laying a hand on them.

* * *

Cat POV

Inside, we were taking down a long hallway, which had as much personality as a regular hospital. The floor was slate grey and the walls white. Above the ceiling was made from those polystyrene squares laid on a grid-like frame. It kinds of reminds me of the clinic that my brother goes to sometimes. Above every door we passed there was a large plastic sign, dark with white lettering- no fancy fonts, just bold and all-caps. It's so new and spotless I felt like the whole building must have just gotten beamed here from some-place dirt is outlawed. My eyes fell to the sorry excuse of an outfit that I was wearing, along with the dirt and sand covered boots which left a trail behind me, sighing at how horrible I must have looked, after not really looking in a mirror since leaving Wankos. Then again, I've been in living hell for the last few months, so no one here can really judge me.

Suddenly the men tell Tori and I to stop at two doors labelled 'Evaluation room. Empty', amongst four other doors labelled 'Evaluation room. Taken'. It didn't take Einstein to work out that that was where Jade, Beck, Andre and Robbie were. Tori and I exchanged a quick look of fear before turning to walk into our own evaluation rooms. Its walls were simply cream, not textured or patterened, just cream. There was no decoration at all save the chairs and medical equipment similar to ones that would be seen in a regular doctors room. At the far end were windows in brown metal frames, only openable at the top.

As my eyes scanned the room and I stepped further into it, I heard the door open and shut behind me. Quickly snapping my head around to see who had entered, I saw a lady entered in light blue scrubs, her black hair tied low in a pony tail. I focused my eyes to get a better look. She was brown skinned with large brown eyes, neatly lined in black. She had the lithe movement of an athlete and the easy smile of one visiting a dear friend. She spoke with a strong american accent and with her hands. With each word the fine fingers would flourish into the stagnant hospital air like birds. "Hello Miss." She addressed me, not yet knowing my name. "I'm Doctor Patel, and I will be your evaluator."

Silently I thanked God that she was a woman, I know what an evaluation entails... and I don't think I could have handled a man doing that. "I'm Cat." I stuttered, still feeling quite uncomfortable.

"Okay Cat." She smiled sweetly. "All your friends are being evaluated also." She explained. "Personally I believe you are all healthy, but it's precaution." She placed down her clipboard on the desk, beside an alarm button, presumably for if I she thinks I'm a zombie or something and needs back up.

"Kay kay." I mumbled.

"So, Cat. I need you to tell me about anything I should know before I evaluate you." She said slowly, looking me up and down. "Such as if you were pregnant." My eyes dropped to my stomach, and how my shirt was slightly too tight around the bump. I got what she was inferring. Slowly, I nodded, looking down still. "There's no need to be ashamed dear." She said sweetly. "How long do you think you are?"

"13 weeks along I think." I said, still not looking over to her, my trying to stay eyes occupied with everything else in the plane white room.

"I see." She picked her clipboard and noted something down. "Which of the boys is the father then?"

I felt my cheeks redden and my mouth go as dry as the desert I just travelled through. Of course she thinks that would be the case, it was after the gas cloud and they were the only boys around... that she knows of. "N...none of them." I stuttered out, willing myself to not cry.

"Was there someone else with you?" She asked, a confused expression on her face.

"K.. kinda." I stumbled, managing just about to keep my tears back. Slowly, I explained the story that haunted my mind for these last 3 months. I watched her expression turn to one of sympathy as I spoke, a few tears falling down my face.

"I'm so sorry Cat." She said calmly.

"Don't be." I shook my head. I'm kinda over people feeling sorry for me. "What do I need to do now?" I asked, putting on a brave face.

"Right okay." She said, slightly shocked by my sudden turn around. "I need to test you for certain traits, such as green skin, weakened muscles and slurred language." She explained. "There's an ultrasound test that I'm meant to do to check your organs. Would you like for me to check your baby's progression?"

"Really?" I felt my eyes light up as she spoke. "Could you?"

"Of course Cat." She smiled sweetly at me.

"Yes please then. I want to know if it's healthy."

* * *

The evaluation was over relatively quickly, and she was delicate and precise with everything she did. Normally I'd hate to be treated like I was fragile, but in this circumstance it was nice. After filling out the final line of her clipboard, she pulled the ultrasound back over beside me and put the really cold gel over my tiny bump. The small screen beside me came to life as she moved the probe over my stomach. She pointed at the monitor to the small grey movement inside of a sea of black. "There's your baby." She said.

"Wow." I breathed out, almost able to feel the movement inside of me. I wished that Tori was there with me to experience it.

"There's the arm, and the leg, and that's the little body." She pointed to various parts of the grey smudge which was my unborn child. "And right there-" She pointed to a small point on the body. "-is the heartbeat. Would you like to heat it?"

"Yes please." I said, unable to stop myself from smiling as I watched this little baby move around on the screen. Suddenly a loud repeated thumping noise filled the room, seemingly going to fast. "Is it meant to be that fast?" I asked, slightly concerned.

"Yes." She laughed slightly. "That's a perfectly healthy heart beat. For a perfectly healthy baby."

"Thank God." I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding. "And thank you for doing this."

* * *

A few minutes later I was handed some new clothes and given some time to clean myself up in the adjacent toilet room. The new clothes weren't much, ill-fitting black crew neck and joggers. But anything was better than the dusty hole covered train wreck of an outfit I turned up in.

There wasn't too much I could do other than clear the dirt form my face and flatten down my hair a little. When I left the toilet room, I was greeted by 2 more men who lead me to God knows where. I was still on too much of an emotional high to really care where they were taking me. I guess I should have been more aware, but it didn't really matter anyway.

They simply just led me straight from my room into another, where Tori, Beck, Jade and Robbie were all sat on various chairs, in the same style black tracksuit that I was wearing, all of them draping over us from being too big. Robbie's arm was now in a proper blue and white cast, holding it up at a 90 degree angle. "Hey." I said quietly as they all looked over at me, studying me to see if I was okay. "Where's Andre?" I asked, noticing a sever lack of the boy.

"Not sure." Beck said bluntly. "I got in here first, then Jade, then Tori, then Robbie and then you."

"My guess is that he's still being evaluated, they've probably gotta get that bullet out of his shoulder first." Jade said coldly. "What took them so long with you?"

"My doctor wanted to check the baby." I said randomly, still smiling slightly.

Tori's eyes lit up as she saw my smile. "All good then?"

"Happy and healthy." I said back, resting my hand on my bump. "I had an ultrasound, he's so small."

"Yes!" Tori yelled, running over to me and enveloping me into a very tight hug, planting a kiss on my forehead lovingly. "Did they clarify that it's a boy?"

"No." I shook my head. "It's too early for that. But I really don't care, I'm just glad he's healthy."

"Me too." Tori smiled back.


	19. Chapter 19

No POV

The teens were left in that room for a hours, with men periodically coming in with food, water and updates on what was happening. So far they'd been told that Andre had gone though surgery to remove the bullet and that after he was fully awake they would be moved into the room, the room that was starting to feel like a cell. Sure, it was a pretty comfortable space, but after months of being stuck together, they all just wanted to get out and be free.

The also told them about what their future entailed, first of all the teens would go though another check and then a series of questioning by FBI agents and other people of importance to the Government. Then, if that were to all go well, it would be revealed to the public that there were infact survivors of the 'Apocalypse', as it was being called. They would probably be put though a series of publicly broadcasted interviews, before finally being able to go and live their lives again.

The men also informed the teens over the changes from the last few months, how America was sent into a 2nd Depression because of the loss of so much income from California, but somehow managed to recover very quickly. They wouldn't say why though which begged the question to what sketchy stuff was going on. Apparently it was now June 1st, which made Robbie quite happy because it meant he hadn't messed up on the date calculations.

Because of their age, they would have to go and complete their Senior year of Highschool somewhere in the country. Cat suggested that they go and live with her parents as they would have been in Idaho when the cloud hit LA. This suggestion was taken into consideration by the men, but told that they would only inform her parents over her survival once the rest of the public found out. The teens understood this, but were still all weary over the coming weeks and months. God only knows how long it would be until they were free.

* * *

The Next Morning (Day 106 - _At this point, this number it just for me to work out what day it is in the story progression_.)

The teens were abruptly awoken by two men bursting into the room. These were the kind of men who looked like they'd been born in a suit. Never a baby or an infant, always serious men with serious jobs. They both had the standard issue white face with the ubiquitous square shoulders and close shaved squarer chin. They were the spitting image of the perfect FBI agents. "You need to come with us." One of the men said, he spoke with a baritone voice, while quickly showing his FBI badge. "Your friend is already in the car." He continued, not waiting for an answer from anyone.

"Come on then." The other said, impatiently hurrying along the newly awoken teens.

"Give us a second to open our eyes. Jesus Christ." Jade growled, angry after the rude awakening.

Neither man batted an eyelid at Jade's aggression, not that you could tell if they did behind their dark shades, instead they just stood at the door like Buckingham Palace Guards, waiting for the 5 teens to get up from their makeshifts beds on the floor.

After about a minute, all the teenagers had gotten up from their beds and walked out of the room, the two men leading them in a single filed line out of the building and into two slick black cars with blacked out windows. Robbie and Beck were put into the first, where Andre was inside already; Tori, Jade and Cat were in the second. The two FBI agents sat in the passenger seats of each car, beside another agent in a similar suit and shades, who was already in the driver's seat.

* * *

Jade POV

As the driver turned on the engine, I finally started to fully wake up. I can't believe they were so rude as to wake us like that, douches. "Where are we going?" I spoke up, getting no reply. I repeated my question again, leaning forward as to make sure the men in the front heard me, but once again no reply. Double douches. Angrily, I slumped back into my seat, accidentally knocking my elbow into Cat's head.

"OW!" She yelped, rubbing the side of her head.

"Shouldn't have been that close then." I growled. Yeah it was mean, I know, but I am NOT a morning person.

"I can't help it." She pouted. Good point really, there were three seats in the back and she was sat in the middle, between Tori and I.

"Lay off her Jade." Tori yawned sleepily, wrapping her arm behind Cat's back and pulling her body closer to her own, giving me slightly more room.

"Oh come off it, we both know that was just a way for you to cuddle her more." I looked over to Tori and raised my eyebrow at how Cat was now very happily snuggled against her body.

"That was just a side effect." She smirked, leaning closer to Cat.

Okay... even I have to admit they are cute together, but I'm practically Cat's big sister so I gotta be there to make sure Vega doesn't break her heart. So far, I trust her. She's helped Cat out through all this, and even managed to keep me from going absolutely psycho with rage after _it_ happened. Man I wanted to kill that bastard, we all did, but I think nature did that for us. I hope he bled out and was-

"Jadey." Cat interrupted my thoughts. "Stop." She put one of her hands over mine, which is when I noticed that my knuckles had gone white where I'd been tensing them into fists. I relaxed them and she removed her hand again. I love the relationship we have, she always knows how to calm me, but not push what was bothering me too much. I think that's the reason we've been friends for so long, that and the fact I'd be dead without her. Too deep? Get over it.

* * *

Andre POV (In the boys car)

This is some real wacky chiz.

After having a bullet removed from my shoulder, I was taken into this Government-looking car and told to wait. For what, they wouldn't tell me. A few minutes later Rob and Beck get chucked in here too. I kinda feel bad for Beck to be honest, me and Robbie are both sat with our bad arms against him in the middle, I think he's too scared to move.

They keep asking how I'm feeling, but the pain relief hasn't wore off yet so it doesn't hurt much. After that was cleared up, we asked the drivers where they were taking us but they didn't reply. I'm kinda freaking out a little, I can't see though the blackout windows and they just keep driving, and driving.

It must have been like 3 hours before they stopped. As soon as we did, the two men practically jumped out of the car and unlocked Robbie's door, telling us to get out one at a time (like we had any other option, two people can't fit through a car door.) Robbie climbed out first, and as soon as his feet hit the floor one of the men dug his finger into a pressure point on Robbie's neck, knocking him out instantly. Beck and I both quickly scrambled backwards in the car. One of them tried to coax us out by saying it "doesn't hurt" but after just seeing our friend get taken down like that, we were not leaving.

"What the fuck did you do to him?" Beck yelled out, pushing me further back into the other car door.

"You can't see where we are." The man sighed. "It's precaution."

"Everything's prec-" I started, before I felt the door behind me unlock and open, making me fall out of it and into the floor in front of the other man. I saw him reach down and touch my neck before it all went black...

That brings me to now. I'm in this pure white room, similar to the one in the 'Testing Facility', but this one is somehow more plain and empty. All that's in here is me and this bed. It's not very comfy. I tried raising my arm, but it's tied down to my side, same with my legs. I'm trapped here, great.

I wonder how the others are coping... especially Cat. She's been through so much, she still won't even let me touch her, let alone a stranger.

Why the chiz can't they just believe that we're not infected?


	20. Chapter 20

Beck POV

I've been awake for at least half an hour now, there's a 'doctor' here too. I think he's a more of a mad scientist. He keeps prodding me with needles, 'testing me' as he calls it. I'm glad I don't hate needles like Jade. I know she isn't coping well- how do I know? I want to say it's because I'm her boyfriend, but no it's because her room is next to mine, and I keep hearing her yell out every time she gets a pricked. It's hellish hearing her in distress, I keep trying to get up to go to her, but I'm still cuffed to this bed. The Doctor guy tilted my bed upright slightly at least, so I guess it's not all bad. Damn, look at me. I've resorted to the slightest of luxuries to try and make myself feel better, pathetic.

 _"NO MORE!"_ I hear Jade's voice though the wall from room next to me. It's so hard to fight the urge to not yell back, but I know she'd hate it more if she knew I could hear her, so I clamp my lips together and try to keep silent.

"Ah shit." I cursed as I felt a sharp object being prodded into my arm.

"Just a Skin Lesion Biopsy." The doctor said, placing the small knife down.

"Which means?" I asked, not understanding the medical language.

"I cut off a small part of your skin to test." He replied nonchalant, continuing with what he was doing.

"To test for what? If it's green? 'Cause you can bloody well see that it's not." I growled.

"To make sure it has no similarities to the infected."

* * *

Tori POV

After all of the injections and such were over, I felt like a pin cushion. The doctor left about an hour ago, saying that she was going to compare my results to the ones they took from a zombie when the gas cloud first hit. I asked if she could release the cuffs, but she bluntly said 'no' and then just left me here, laying on this bed. Racking my brain for something to do with myself, a song suddenly popped into my head, it's one I wrote will at Hollywood Arts, man I'm gonna miss that school. It took a few minutes for the lyrics and rhythm to settle themselves back into my brain, but once I got them all down, I just broke into song.

 **Song: You're the reason (from Victorious)**

 _"I don't wanna make a scene, I don't wanna let you down_

 _Try to do my own thing, and I'm starting to figure it out_

 _That it's alright, keep it together wherever we go_

 _And it's alright, oh well, whatever_

 _Everybody needs to know_

 _You might be crazy_

 _Have I told you lately that I love you?_

 _You're the only reason that I'm not afraid to fly_

 _And it's crazy that someone could change me_

 _Now no matter what it is I have to do, I'm not afraid to try_

 _And you need to know that you're the reason why_

 _I don't even care when they say you're "a little bit off"_

 _Look 'em in the eye, I say, "I could never get enough"."_

I stop myself suddenly, letting the reminisce of my voice echo around the empty room. I can't believe it took me until now to realise the subconscious message of the song... It's about Cat. People always used to call her ' _a little bit off_ ' and I loved that about her, and she has ' _changed me',_ and a number of other things that those lyrics describe. I wrote that song over a year ago, and I know I've had a crush on her for a while... but really that long? I guess, subconsciously, I must have. I mean I did originally write that for Trina's birthday, but anyone listening to that would have known it was more of a love song rather than a sisterly thing.

As I opened my mouth to start singing again, the doctor returned, with one of the men that drove us here. I felt my breath hitch as he walked closer to me, slightly scared of him after how easily he knocked me out earlier. He ignored my obvious fear, and kept walking towards me, pulling a small key out of his pocket. This small key fitted perfectly into the cuffs that locked me to my bed, and the man put it to it's purpose by unlocking each of my restraints. "The tests came back with conclusive evidence that you are safe." He said in his normal baritone voice. "I will take you to another room down the hallway where your friends will join you soon." _Great, another room._ I sat upright on the bed and climbed off of it, following the man and the doctor out of the room, along a hallway and into another.

The new room was similar to a hotel room, this was no "chocolate on the pillow" hotel at all, just a room with 2 double beds, a wardrobe, and a small shower-room attached to it. I turned around to ask the men when the others would get here, but I was greeted by a shut door and I'd realised he'd gone. Deciding there was no need to go back after him, I looked around the room. First, I opened the wardrobe to see 6 different sets of clothes, 3 big and 3 small, identical to the ones I was wearing. After shutting the door on it again, I went straight into the shower-room. I stripped down and stepped slowly into the shower, turning the water on high and letting it beat over my head in steamy rivulets. Closing my eyes to the water as the heat soaked into my skin, I lent against the cool tiles as my weak legs threaten to buckle. The water poured down, it drips by my side, as my mind faded into dullness and everything was a foggy illusion. The sensation of the steamy water calmed me; it took my mind of things. My mind swirled, and it was like I was standing under an everlasting waterfall. Over the previous few months I'd missed the wonderful sensation of the warm water, having to wash myself by the skins in the Wanko's toilets. The feeling of the water was so calming and ever so beautiful.

Singing in the shower is one of my favourite things, shower-room acoustics always make everything sound 100 times better. I opened my mouth and completed the song I was singing earlier, my little ode to Cat.

* * *

Jade POV

Those douche bags finally worked out that I wasn't an infected, it's not like I hadn't been telling them that repeatedly for the last 24 hours. One of the agents took me into this hotel like room and left me here, I could hear the shower running so I knew someone else was already in here with me. It took all of my willpower to not run in there and push them out of it so I could have a shower myself, but I really an not in the mood for seeing anyone naked, unless it's Beck, but I'm not taking the risk otherwise.

In defeat, I slumped down onto one of the double beds and laid across it, the fabric like pure heaven against my skin, I ran my hands up and down the sheets to take in the pure comfort. My body still ached from the needles and cuts on my skin from the 'tests', but in that moment, the feeling of a real bed supporting my body was a good enough distraction.

 _"You might be crazy."_

Vega's voice suddenly appeared, making me snap out of my little trance. I bolted upright and started looking for her voice before realising that she was the one in the shower. Dodged a bullet by not storming into there. I considered yelling at her to stop, but she has got quite a soothing voice, so I let it slide. Don't tell her I thought that though.

 _"Have I told you lately that I love you?_

 _You're the only reason that I'm not afraid to fly_

 _And it's crazy that someone could change me_

 _Now no matter what it is I have to do, I'm not afraid to try_

 _And you need to know that you're the reason why."_

The song sounds different from when she sung it to Trina. It's got more of a smooth and earthy tone to it, like a slow love song, rather than upbeat disco one. It might just be because of the lack of instruments, but I doubt it.

 _"If it was raining, you would yell at the sun_

 _Pick up the pieces when the damage is done_

 _You say, 'It's just another day in the shade'_

 _Look at what a mess we made_

 _You might be crazy_

 _Have I told you lately that I love you?_

 _You're the only reason that I'm not afraid to fly_

 _And it's crazy that someone could change me_

 _Now no matter what it is I have to do, I'm not afraid to try_

 _You might be crazy_

 _Have I told you lately that I love you?_

 _You're the only reason that I'm not afraid to fly_

 _And it's crazy that someone could change me_

 _Now no matter what it is I have to I'm not afraid to try_

 _And you need to know that you're the reason why."_

As she finished singing, I mentally decided that it was definitely a love song. She was singing about Cat. I've always been a little protective of Cat, but I think she's in good hands with Vega.

* * *

No POV

Tori got out of the shower about quarter an hour later, with her hair wrapped up in a towel. "Move." Jade jumped to her feet, pushed Tori out of the way and practically dived into the shower room. "Sorry Vega!" She yelled though the wall. "I really need a shower."

"Oh, okay?" Tori replied, slightly shocked over Jade suddenly appearing like that. She walked over to one of the beds and, like Jade did, she laid across it, feeling the soft fabric on her skin. However, her moment of indulgence was very quickly interrupted by the door swinging open. "Jesus!" She yelled, bolting upright, as Andre was being pushed into the room. "Is everyone trying to give me a heart attack or something?!"

"Hey to you too Tori." Andre said, trying to quickly take in his surroundings as the door shut behind him. "Who's in there?" He pointed to the shower-room door.

"Jade." Tori replied, laying back down on the bed.

"I'll wait then." Andre said quickly. No matter how much he wanted a shower, he was not going to burst in there on Jade (as he wanted his limbs to stay attached to his body). He joined Tori by laying across the second bed to relax his sore body.

"How's your shoulder?" Tori asked.

"Sore." Andre replied honestly. "But the needle pains are kind of evening it out."

"You'll feel better after a shower, I promise." Tori said comfortingly.


	21. Chapter 21

Day 107

With the girls in one bed and boys in the other, the gang all gradually got up the next morning. Jade and Tori were both thoroughly embarrassed when they woke up snuggled close to each other, being so used to sleeping beside Cat and Beck.

After that fiasco, they each had another shower in a feeble attempt to make up the missed months, before an agent came in with a tray of food for them and just told them to 'eat quickly' before leaving again.

"What do you think they're planning on doing with us today?" Beck thought aloud, in between mouthfuls of toast.

"I hope it's better than yesterday." Cat said coldly, notably not eating with the others. The day before had really shaken her up, the being held down against her will brought back unwanted memories. Unlike the others, Cat reported that she hadn't had any injections, (presumably because they could harm the baby) just various blood, skin and DNA tests. Jade was very sour over that, saying that she should have just claimed to be pregnant too to get out of whatever they injected her with. Cat was not amused by this.

"It will be, Babe." Tori smiled reassuringly, putting a piece of toast in the girl's hands. "You need to eat either way."

"Fine." Cat sighed, taking a small bite of the toast.

Two agents suddenly burst into the room, telling all of the teens to follow them. Quickly discarding their food, the group all stood up and followed robotically, used to the commands and instructions by now. The two agents lead them down a long corridor, up a set of stairs and into another corridor. "Each of you in a room." He motioned to the rows of doors on each side of the corridor.

Exchanging a quick look with each other, the gang all walked into separate rooms.

* * *

Robbie POV

The room was every shade of grey, from washed out concrete to almost steel-blue. Every line was straight, every corner sharp, with a table and two chairs in the centre. I walked towards the closest chair and sat down on it, it was about as comfortable as a train station bench.

As soon as my butt hit the seat, another agent walked into the room. "Agent Lennox." he said plainly. When he spoke I could hear the army in his voice, I'd bet anything he's ex-military. He held himself like a mannequin, even his hair was plastic-perfect. Hairspray. I can't stand men in hairspray. As he approached, the air became quickly saturated with his cologne, but once fixed in his gun-metal eyes there was no dis-engagement. His hand shot out like it was remote controlled, and clasped mine tightly, too tightly. After violently shaking it, he released and I pretend not to be bothered while I inconspicuously massaged my fingers to get the blood moving again.

"R..Robert Shapiro." I stammered out, deciding that my formal name was required.

"Birth date?" He said, sitting on the chair opposite me and writing my name down on the clipboard on the desk.

"13th November 1994." I said, he wrote it down.

"Any proof?" The agent asked.

"Proof?" I stuttered out. My life was in LA, everything about me, my birth certificate, ID, everything.

"To make sure you aren't lying." Lennox said as if it were obvious.

"Well... I... no." I looked down. "It's all in LA."

"Then we have a problem don't we."

"Uhuh." Robbie gulped.

"Right then." Lennox sighed, removing the piece of paper from the clipboard and flipping it around. "In the meantime you'll tell me about everything that happened since the cloud hit."

"Everything?"

"I just said that didn't I?" He said harshly, already getting impatient with me.

"Well it all started when we were at Cat's apartment in Venice California..."

* * *

Cat POV

About half an hour later

This is a little weird. I just finished taking to this lady, she was really sweet and told me to tell her about everything that happened, it reminds me a little of those therapy sessions I used to have to 'see what was wrong with me'. She told me that it was a safe space and that I could tell her everything, so I did. And after 3 boxes of tissues, I felt a lot better. Re-living it all did really suck, but she was so nice about it all saying that she understood where I was coming from, I didn't ask what she meant but I have a guess.

Then the lady left, so I got up to look around the room, I saw that the light reflected off the back wall differently than the rest, so I slowly stood up and walked over to it and reached out to touch it. It felt like a window, painted the same steel-blue colour as the other four walls. Go figures, people were watching me talk to her, probably recording it too. That hurt a little bit, and at first I was really upset, but after thinking about it, I'd much rather they had a video of me talking about it rather than asking me about it 101 times.

So now I'm just sat on the floor of the room, folding the reminding tissues from the box into various pieces of origami to settle my mind. So far I have a fleet of planes, swans, and enough little boats to start my own Navy. "I'm Captain Cat." I giggled to myself, pushing one of the tissue boats back and forth along the floor. I felt a slight flutter from my stomach, not quite a kick or drastic movement, but just a slight shake. "And my second in command." I smiled, placing a hand on my baby bump. "If I could Baby," I started whispering. "I'd take this boat and sale us away from here, with your Mommy Tori too." I paused after realising what I'd said. "That's if she wants to be 'Mommy Tori'." Of course, she'd said she'll stay by my side and that we'll stick together... but does she want this? Am I asking too much of her to do that?


	22. Chapter 22

Day 114 (One Week Later) 

Andre POV

This week's certainly been something. We've spent practically every waking minute being interrogated, studied, moved around, or being told what we can and can't tell the public when the time comes. I'm finally starting to regain the movement in my shoulder, so that's good at least.

Yesterday was a kinda big day, the government finally decided to accept our identities as what we claimed them to be and made new IDs for us. To be honest, as soon as I'm out of here I'm going to get a new ID photo, cause in this one my dreadlocks are all unravelled and it looks like I haven't slept in weeks, all in all I'm not looking my best. I think everyone else is planning on doing the same, apart from Beck who somehow managed to look perfect in his, even without any products touching his hair for months.

Today is June 11th, also known as my birthday so I'm now officially 17! We celebrated as best as we could when we woke up, but as soon as breakfast was eaten we were suddenly whisked away from the building we were in, and taken in another blacked-out car. Same as any other moving day, we were told to grab our spare clothes (which we'd been wearing on rotation with our first set), put in two separate cars, were driven someone without being told where, and then taken out of the car. However, we were actually allowed to stay concision when we got out of the vehicle, which I'd say is a good thing. Taking advantage of my ability to see, I looked around the destination, to see that we were on a large open land of tamarack, with a single plane in front of us.

Two of the agents got out of the cars and lead us up into the plane. We climbed up the small set of steps leading the open door on the side, and walked into it in a single filed line. The inside had the look of a billionaire's private jet. There were no rows of seats, only the most elegant leather couches and coffee tables with ornate cabriole legs. There were plush curtains at the windows and a plasma screen as large as a movie theatre. The 6 of us looked in awe at the furnishings around us and straightaway all jumped onto the various couches and turned on the TV, out first proper use of technology in months.

"We are taking you to Florida, Miami specifically." One of the agents told us, standing in front of the television to get our attention. "Today is the day the public will be told of your survival, and you will be expected to do interviews as of tomorrow." He continued.

"Why Miami?" I asked, internally thankful that we could finally stop being hidden and being moved around in secrecy.

"Since the isolation of Los Angeles," The second agent explained briefly. "Miami has 'taken over' the entertainment and film industry of America. At first you will be interviewed live on news shows, then talk shows will get the opportunity to talk to you. When we get there you will be further briefed on what you can and cannot say about your experiences."

"You're going to filter us more?" Jade spoke up. We've already had many hours of being told that we can't talk about a lot of what happened, like how I got my shoulder wound.

"Everything you say will reflect on the US Government, young lady." The first agent addressed Jade as such, despite full well knowing her name.

"Yeah yeah, I know." Jade rolled her eyes.

"We will arrive in roughly 5 hours." The first agent said bluntly, moving out of the way of the TV and walking into the cockpit with the other agent.

"I guess we should see what's changed in TV then." Tori said, picking up the TV remote. We all had a sudden pang of guilt while scrolling though the TV Guide, most of the shows we were used to had been channelled or changed, presumably because the stars would have been in LA when the cloud hit. A lot of the singers we knew were also absent from the Music channels, replaced with new up and coming artists. The new music did sound pretty similar to the old stuff though, so it's good that we hadn't missed anything too dramatic there.

And that's pretty much what we did for the rest of the flight, along with eating some of the food from the mini fridge provided. The sound of music was probably the best birthday present I could ask for. During those months hidden in Wankos, I longed for the sound of an instrument other than that cheap roughly tuned guitar that I'd found in the toy isle. Now things finally felt like they'd go back to normal, well as normal as it could be after everything that happened.

* * *

Cat POV

" _Miami_ " The city name keeps echoing around my head, we're being taken to Miami. I'm going home.

That's something only Jade know about me, I was actually born in Miami, but we moved when I was only a year old because my Papà's job got transferred to LA, and I haven't been back since. I've always wanted to go, so I guess now is the time.

The closer we get to the city, the more I realise how far we're getting from my family, well I think we are anyway. For all I know, my brother's been let out of the hospital in Idaho and they've moved again. Maybe they've even started a new life and forgotten all about me... maybe they've-

"Babe, you okay?" Tori asked from beside me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah." I replied automatically. "Just in a trance." I smiled at her and rested my head on her shoulder, it's the perfect height for me. Everything about her is perfect.

"Alright." She replied, draping her arm over me. I love when we just sit like this, cuddled up together. It's so relaxing and always takes my mind away from everything. I don't know how she always does it, maybe it's just the fact that she's there for me and- argh she's just the best.

I can't help but laugh as I look around the jet. Tori and I are cuddling here, and Beck and Jade are doing the same on the other couch. Making Robbie and Andre look like the two most awkward people on the planet. Normally they can just walk away and go do something to keep themselves occupied (like at Wankos), but while in the plane, they have nowhere to go so they're both just focused on the TV, pretending that they both aren't awkwardly 3rd wheeling the two couples.


	23. Chapter 23

No POV

After the plane landed, the teens were taken in two cars (this time just a regular everyday ones) to a hotel a few miles from the airport. The ability to see through the windows again was a strange experience for them, as the last time they could they were driving though the deserted roads of Arizona.

The vibrant and lively roads of Miami, with actual people walking around the streets, was a slight shock to them. To anyone else in the street, the scene of two cars with teens starring eagerly out of the windows would have been a weird one.

The agents drove them to a fancy looking hotel a few miles away from where the plane landed. From the outside it was the typical glass skyscraper Florida hotel, which one would expect while staying in Miami. Walking inside revealed something different. The hotel lobby was sparse on the usual ornate detailing, more geometrical than classical. The colours were in the palate of a beach, every hue from golden sand to the rich wood of a fishing boat. The accent colours were the sky and the sea, all of it the perfect compliment to the onshore breeze that brings a salty fragrance. Whoever ran this place knows their plants, or at least employs someone who does. Every possible place for a plant had one, lending their virescent hues to finish the colour scheme perfectly.

Approaching the receptionist desk, one of the agents walked over and had a brief conversation and flashed his FBI badge at the woman before returning to the teens, a key in hand. "Go to to this room and order room service if you're hungry." He put the key in Beck's hand. "Just stay there until we come back tomorrow. Don't try leaving, we will find you. The public are being informed about your survival tonight, so if you do go outside, people will recognise you." With that, the agents both turned around and just left the group stood in the middle of this large lobby.

"Great." Jade sighed, leading them over to a elevator and standing inside, waiting for the others.

They followed her in, and Beck looked for the button with their room number. "I can't see it."

"It's that one." Cat pointed to the button labelled 'Penthouse' with their number in brackets etched bellow it.

"Score!" Robbie announced, smacking his hand into the button, starting the elevators ascent.

The gang all looked at him oddly as the elevator continued to climb past the different levels, going up and up for a solid 30 seconds. Eventually, when the doors did open, Beck pushed the key into the keyhole and unlocked the large white doors in front of them.

"Something's tell me they're trying to either apologise for treating us badly, or butter us up for our interviews." Jade spoke up, motioning the to room around them. She wasn't wrong, it was huge and didn't look like a hotel room at all...more like a guest suite in a luxury palace. The first room was a grand living room, with a huge glass window overlooking the city below them and giving a spectacular view of the rolling blue ocean.

After a minute of taking in the view, they all moved onto two connected rooms. The boys opened one door, and the girls the other, to reveal two identical rooms containing a king-sized bed with pure white, Egyptian cotton sheets. Accompanied by a desk, a thirty-six-inch TV with video and DVD, a sprawling leather sofa, two closed oak doors on opposite sides, and a wall covered by floor-to-ceiling windows. Dumping their small bags of spare clothes on the floors of their rooms, the trios opened one of the oak door to reveal a bathroom which had a bath seeming big enough for a football team, and a toilet with 101 features, everything in marble and handcrafted tiles. They shut the door to the bathroom and turned to open the door on the opposite side. Both boys and girls discovered what was behind it at the same time and looked in awe as their eyes rested on the Jacuzzi which connected the two bedrooms together.

"Oh how I wish I had a bathing suit right now." Tori spoke up, walking over to the Jacuzzi, which could easily fit all 6 of the teens inside comfortably.

"I don't know about you lot, but I'm thinking of going in there in my boxers." Andre spoke up. "I'll just wear my spare set after."

"Same actually." Beck said.

"I'm in." Jade spoke up. "Well obviously not in boxers." She rolled her eyes before someone could speak up to correct her.

* * *

After about 2 minutes the boys were all sat in the Jacuzzi in their boxers, feeling the jets on their bodies, Robbie holding his casted arm up above the water level.

With her usual air of confidence Jade walked into the bathroom in her bra and underwear and climbed into the tub beside her boyfriend, closing her eyes as she welcome the soothing heat of the water. "This is the life." She sighed out.

"Mhm." Beck replied. "Are Tori and Cat coming too?"

"Yeah, Vega just needed to convince Cat that she doesn't look fat." Jade replied.

"Of course she's not fat." Robbie spoke up. "She's 15 weeks pregnant."

"You're telling me like I don't know Shaprio." Jade leaned her head backwards against the rim of the tub, submerging her whole body under the water.

" _Cat, how on earth could you think you look fat? I can see your ribs for gods sake!"_ Toris voice came from the girl's room.

" _But-"_ Cat feebly tried to reply.

" _That's your baby Cat, that's not fat. It's beautiful, and you're beautiful."_ Tori cut in.

"Are you two gonna stop being lovey-dovey and come in here?" Jade yelled at the two girls.

"Come on Babe." Tori said to Cat, giving her a quick peck on the lips before opening the door and semi-dragging Cat through it with her. The two girls then climbed into the hot tub, Cat trying to cover her baby bump the whole time.

"What's this?" Andre spoke aloud, pressing a button on the time of the Jacuzzi. The jets increased and all the teens consecutively sighed in relaxation. "Best birthday ever." He spoke up, lowering his body further into the water.

* * *

That night, after ordering some food from room service, the gang all sat together on the large couch in the large living room, watching the news on the television. A man in a grey suit appeared on the screen, looking very serious as he read off an autocue behind the camera. "Good Evening, I'm Jacob Carter and you are watching News Tonight." He spoke in a clear voice, looking into the camera from behind his desk with the Miami skyline behind him. "The Gas Cloud which hit the South West in February was a tragic event, killing millions of people-" His voice had an air of sadness in it, clearly the event was one which shook the country, and rightly so. "-forcing thousands more to leave everything behind and relocate."

"Get on with it man." Jade yelled at the Television, not caring that the man couldn't actually hear her.

"Today, however." The man continued. "It was discovered that 6 teenagers managed to survive by hiding in a safe room." 6 pictures appeared of the teens, from their Twitter profiles.

"Thank God they didn't use those ID photos of us." Tori spoke up. "I looked dreadful in that."

"Where'd they get those photos? I don't remember telling them my Twitter name." Beck said quizzically.

"It's the FBI, they probably know the day you made that profile, where you were and what your password is." Jade pointed out.

"Andre Harris, Beckett Oliver, Robert Shapiro, Caterina Valentine, Victoria Vega and Jadelyn West, from Los Angeles California, are the names of these young people. The only information we know so far is that they found refuge in a Wanko's store to stay protected from the zombie hordes before driving the whole way to the border in Arizona." The man said. "When we know more, we will inform you straight away."

"Keeping it secret still ay?" Robbie said.

"Probably want us to tell the story." Andre said. "I don't know what angle they're getting at, but I'm thinking this isn't going to be the last news report we'll see."


	24. Chapter 24

The Next Day (Day 115)

Beck POV

Today was... well... it was a day. At about 8am we were awoken by these two agents, and a trio of what looked like stylists all in slightly Avant-garde outfits, making me feel very out of place in the black joggers I'd gone to bed in. The agents told us that they'd 'be back soon' before leaving these total strangers in the room with us. "Um... hi?" Robbie spoke up as all three of us guys climbed out off the king-sized bed. "Who are you?"

"We are your stylists for tonight."

"Stylists?" I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"Did you expect to be on national television in that tragedy of an outfit?" One of the stylists said, motioning to our three matching black tracksuit pants.

"We have shirts too." Robbie said awkwardly, pulling a match black crewneck over his head.

The three stylists exchanged a quick look with eachother before splitting off and walking over to each of us. The most 'normal looking' of the three approached me. His hair appeared to be its natural shade of brown, unlike the other two who's were bright blue and bleached platinum respectively. His outfit was still slightly too avant-garde for my style, with a long green coat-jacket layered over a denim shirt. However it somehow did suit him. "In the grand room outside there are some outfits." He said, looking me up and down, like the other stylist were doing to Andre and Robbie. "Get washed and meet us out there." He motioned for my to turn around, so I did. He noted my frame and then left the room with the other two men.

"That was weird." Robbie spoke up.

"You're talking." Andre shot back, chuckling to himself.

"Hey! I've been pretty normal recently." Robbie replied.

"It did take getting rid of Rex." I spoke up.

"Let's just get ready." Robbie replied sourly, slightly missing his puppet friend.

* * *

No POV

After about 5 minutes, the boys all left their room after each quickly getting washed. Walking out into the main room, they were greeted by the 3 male stylists who were talking to 3 female stylists beside multiple racks of clothes.

"Boys, nice for you to finally join us." The brown haired male stylists spoke up, turning towards the boys who'd just entered the room.

"We beat the girls at least." Andre said.

"And we're very proud." A female stylist in a bright pink suit said, sarcasm dripping from her lips.

"Thanks." Robbie beamed at her, somehow missing the mockery in the lady's voice.

The girls appeared from their room, looking as equally confused and tired as the boys. "Oooh clothes." Cat giggled deliriously, looking at the many wracks of clothes in front of her.

"Someone just explain this." Jade commanded, storming over to one of the couches and slumping down onto it.

"Tonight, you six have an interview." The platinum blonde man said.

"What kind of interview?" Tori asked.

"According to those two men." The pink suited lady started, referring to the two FBI agents who were no where to be seen. "They told us to dress you for a broadcast interview and prepare outfits for other various appearances on TV. You need to look your best, well, better than you do right now."

"Thanks." Jade replied to her back handed compliment.

"Let's get to work then." The blue haired man said.

The group of stylists split up and each walked over to a different teenager, the men going to the boys and the women to the girls. "Nope." Was Jade's response after looking at the bright pink suit of her stylist. "I'll take Vega's." She pointed to the lady, in a black bodycon dress, that was talking to Tori.

Each stylist started simultaneously pulled out a flexible measuring tape and started to wrap it around various body parts of the teens, noting down each number as they did so.

* * *

Jade POV

The first thing the lady did when she walked over to me was comment on my hair and how my brown roots were showing and the black was dulled. Well no shit lady, dying my hair colour wasn't on my priority list these last few months. She then asked me whether I wanted it redyed black or completely covered back to my brown, I thought about it for a second before deciding that I in fact did want to stick to the black. It was my signature thing, and I like it that way.

The next thing she did was start to measure my body, seemingly having a comment about every part of me good or bad. From my 'big bust' but 'small waist' that would make it hard to find an outfit that would fit me, to my 'long legs' which she could emphasise. Thanks I guess, but what does that even mean? I eventually gave up with listening to her, and just resorted to nodding and 'mhmm'ing to everything she said.

"This would look nice on you for the chat show appearance on the day after tomorrow." She help up a dark navy blue jumpsuit.

"Sure, but that's most colour I'll wear." I shrugged. It was a nice jumpsuit and I'm not in the mood to argue.

"And I'll pair it with these nude heels." She held up a pair of 2 inch peach heels.

I 'mhmm'ed as she piled the outfit into my hands, along with a more casual one for tonight's interview, and sent me to my room to change. I turned on my heel and walked into the room, quickly dumping the outfit on my bed, saying a quick 'hey' to Cat who was stood by the mirror trying to zip up the back of a bright-red dress with a tie on her waist just above her baby bump.

"Could you help?" She asked, still trying to twist her arm to reach the zipper.

"Sure." I replied, moving the zipper up her back. "I have questions about this dress though." I looked her up and down. "It clashes with your hair a little don't you think?"

"Oh, I'm going to dye it back to brown." She sighed, twirling a strand of her dull red hair around her finger.

"Y...you are?" I stuttered, Cat without red hair was like a...a.. I can't think of a good enough simile.

"Yeah. I can't dye my roots while pregnant, something to do with the dye going into the blood stream, so I'd rather just dye the red bits back to brown." She motioned to how the muted red section of her hair had grown out to roughly at her ear level with the brown roots ontop.

"But red's your thing."

"Jade we're going to a new school soon, and I doubt they allow students to have wacky colours in their hair. Besides, I think I'm ready to go back to brown."

"Okay Kitty, it's your choice." I sighed, walking back over to the bed and picking back up the jumpsuit while Cat sat beside it, trying to put on a pair of shoes.

"Are those stilettos or a murder weapon?" Tori said to Cat, while walking into the room holding a white shirt with grey-striped flared trousers.

"Holy hell, they're tall." I said, finally taking a proper look at the red 6 inch heels Cat was putting her feet into.

"I know." Cat said, sliding off the bed and onto her feet and walking over to the mirror. "Good thing I've got practise in heels."

"Why're you being put in those?" Tori asked.

"Stand next to me." Cat replied, shaking her head slightly.

"Okay?" Tori and I exchanged a quick look before standing either side of Cat in front of the mirror.

"Even in these heels, I'm only an inch taller than Tori, and I'm still shorter that you." She said to me. "Adding on your heels and you'll both tower over me."

"And your point is?"

"I'm too short to wear little heels." Cat said, before the voice of her stylist calling her interrupted us. "I gotta go I guess." She sighed again, walking out of her room.

"It's gonna be fun trying to fit into this." I commented, motioning to the lack of bust room in the top half of my outfit.

"I've got the opposite problem." Tori said, laughing at herself as she put on the low cutting shirt which hung off of her body, at least 2 sized too big for her.

* * *

Tori POV an hour later

After giving us quite a few different outfits ranging from casual to smart we all collapsed on the couch, tired of trying on so many clothes. All of the stylists left apart from Jade and Cat's who revealed a suitcase full of hair dying equipment, obviously being prior-informed about their hair needs. They took the two girls into the separate bathrooms with the appropriate dyes, brushes and a few towels, leaving the other four teens alone in the main room. "So, a brunette Cat." Robbie spoke up.

"Yeah." I sighed, slightly sour that Cat was getting rid of her signature look. "Have any of you see her with brown hair before?"

"Yep." Andre replied, "It was brown in Middle School."

"Oh yeah. You, Jade and Cat went to Middle School together." I remembered.

"For the whole 3 years." He said, for some reason feeling the need to remind us how long Middle School was. "I didn't really talk to them until we went to HA though. Back then her hair was all curly." He chuckled to himself, remembering the voluminous dark brown curls of the young Cat.

"I think I've seen pictures of it, when she did a Throwback Thursday post on TheSlap." I spoke up. "Wonder how it suddenly went so straight."

"Straighteners?" Beck said, thinking it was obvious.

"Did you see her straightening her hair when we were in Wankos?" I said back, shaking my head.

"Good point."

"Are we going to keep discussing hair or get back into that Jacuzzi?" Andre spoke up, sitting upright from the couch.

"Jacuzzi!" Robbie yelled, jumping to his feet. Beck and I just chuckled, following Andre and Robbie to the Jacuzzi and all climbing in.

"This is the life." Beck sighed in relief, leaning into the tub.

* * *

Cat POV

"Enjoying yourselves there?" I spoke up, walking in the Jacuzzi room and seeing the 3 boys and one girl all asleep with their heads rested on the rim of the tun.

"Mhm." Beck replied, not opening his eyes.

"Is sleeping in there really a good idea?" I asked, walking over to the edge of the Jacuzzi behind my girlfriend.

"No one told us otherwise." Robbie spoke up, opening his eyes to look at the younger girl. "Hair looks nice." He acknowledged in a slightly dazed state.

"Thanks." I replied, twirling a section of my newly-dyed brown locks around my finger.

"Awe, I officially can't call you Lil' Red anymore." Andre pouted jokingly, before giving me a reassuring smile about my new hair.

I giggled slightly before motioning to my girlfriend, and asking the boys if she was asleep or not. Once they informed me that she was, I saw my opportunity and took it. I snuck up right to the edge of the Jacuzzi while the boys swam closer to her, until Tori was surrounded on all sides. "1,2,3" I whispered. "AHHH!" I screamed in her ear while the three boys did the same, creating a noise loud enough for the whole hotel to hear.

"AH!" Tori's eyes suddenly snapped open and she shot forward in the Jacuzzi, nearly falling over into the water. "You guys suck." She said to the boys, not noticing me behind her.

"Awe, sorry Babe." I said jokingly, making her turn to face me.

"You planned that?" She shot at me, slightly cranky over us waking her so rudely. "Oh my god! Your hair!" She yelled, suddenly noticing the lack of red.

"Yup, I'm officially a brunette." I giggled. "Do you like it?"

"I love it." She reached over the rim of the Jacuzzi and tried to kiss me, but I was too far away so I climbed onto the rim... this wasn't the best idea I've ever had because the next thing she did was grab my wrists and pull me into the water.

"Torriii!" I squealed, trying to get over the shock of falling head first into the warm water. "I just dried my hair, and I'm still in my shirt and joggers!"

"Revenge is sweet." She dropped her voice seductively and pulled me in for a kiss.

"Uhum." Beck coughed to remind us we weren't alone.

"We have to put up with you and Jade." I shot to him and quickly pecked Tori on the lips again.


	25. Chapter 25

Jade POV

It's 2:15pm now, and the agents have come back, letting us to be ready for 2:30. All three of us girls are getting changed into our outfits for tonight, leaving the more flashy jumpsuits and dresses for chat show in a few days. Vega's been put in near skin-tight black dress pants with a matching fitted blazer and white shirt, she's terrified to move as she thinks she's gonna spill something down herself, funny really 'cause she's probably the least clumsy of the three of us. Cat's been put in something similar, a long-line 3 button light grey and white blazer and dress pants, with so many small stripes down it she's started too look like a weird illusion. I've been put into a dark grey button up shirt and a black pencil skirt, the shirt's a little tight so I've undone the top few buttons to give myself room to breathe.

"I'm already sick of heels." Cat groaned, trying to fit her feet into her grey 3 inch heels.

"Have fun at the chat show then." I smirked, reminding her of the 6 inched heels she'd need to wear in the future.

"Argh!" She moaned, falling backwards onto the bed in annoyance.

"I feel like I need makeup." Tori said, looking at herself from a hand mirror.

"Have fun doing that without knocking any over yourself." I mocked.

"More like have fun doing it without any makeup." Cat cut in.

"Good point there." I said, noting that we didn't in fact have any makeup with us.

"They'll probably put some on us before the interview."

A knock on the door interrupted us. "You all decent?" Beck asked from the other side of it.

"Yeah." I called back.

"Are you actually?" He asked again.

"Yes!" I replied, yelling slightly. I don't take offence to him re-asking, as embarrassing him like that is actually something I'd do. He twisted the door handle and walked in, wearing black dress pants and a grey button down, marching my outfit. "You look dapper." I said, using a word that I'd never thought would leave my lips.

"You're looking beautiful yourself my lady." He replied with a slightly mocking tone.

"Thanks. What'd you want anyway?" I said sternly.

"The agents are here early, and I didn't want them bursting in on you so I offered to tell you all." He explained.

"We're all ready now, so let's head out." Tori said, helping Cat up from the bed and walking out of the door behind Beck and I.

"Hurry up girls, we're running late." One of the agents said.

"But you wanted us ready by 2:30." Tori said.

"And we're late." The agent replied, walking out of the room and to the elevator.

"But it's only- oh never mind." Tori sighed and followed the men out with the rest of us.

"Hey look at that." Cat spoke up. "We'e matching." She giggled, reaching out to touch Robbie's grey and white stripped tie, which matched her blazer and pants.

"So are Andre and I." Tori spoke up, nodding to Andre's black tie.

"You all match, congratulations." One of the agents said coldly, pressing the 'lobby' button once we'd all walked into the elevator.

* * *

No POV

Once the elevator had descended to the lobby, the agents led the teens out of the hotel and into the two separate dark grey cars, with semi-blacked out windows allowing the teens to see out but for no one to see in. These cars looked a lot more regular than the government looking once that they'd be driven around in for most of the week.

"Which one of you is Cat?" The Agent-Driver of the girl's car spoke up, for the first time ever while driving.

"Me." Cat said timidly from the middle seat in the back of the car.

"Thoughts so." The man replied, looking at who spoke though the rear-view mirror. "I was meant to have asked you this in the hotel, but we were running late."

"We weren't." Tori mumbled.

"But it's about your baby." He continued, ignoring Tori.

"My baby?" Cat replied, her hand subconsciously falling to her baby bump.

"Yes." The agent replied, still focused on the road. "This week will consist of a lot of interviews, and even after that there is a major chance you will stay in the public eye. It's your choice to bring up the baby, but I am going to inform you of the pros and cons." He kept talking without giving Cat a chance to answer. "You may feel like it is easier to leave out your rape and that you are pregnant, however there is a major chance that someone will notice it and rumour may spread. This could be during the interview phase or afterwards. Once again, it is your choice but rumours are never a good thing and it may spiral out of control."

"I didn't think about that." Cat whisper-spoke, 101 thoughts buzzing around her head. She couldn't even fathom talking about what happened during an interview that would be broadcasted nationwide, but she didn't want rumours to spread if she avoided it.

"You have until before the interview to decide." The agent finished, leaving the girl to make a big decision.

"No one will judge you if you tell the story Kitty." Jade said to the younger girl.

"I know." Cat replied. "Today's interview won't be live will it? I guess today would be the best day to say it the, that way it won't in front of an audience and they can cut it out if I have a meltdown." Her voice broke mid sentence but she held back any other sign of emotional vulnerability.

"It's up to you Cat." Tori yawned, leaning her head on the car window.

"Didn't sleep well Tori?" Jade asked, changing the subject.

"Funnily enough, you have a thing for kicking people in the middle of the night, it kinda kept me awake." Tori yawned again.

"I keep offering to sleep in the middle of the bed." Cat spoke up.

"No way, not with her violent sleeping pattern. She could kick your stomach." Tori replied.

"Did you just suggest that I'd end up hurting her baby?" Jade growled. "Don't you dare-"

"I'm sure she didn't mean it like that Jade." Cat cut her off, stopping a potentially violent rant. "Did you Tori?"

"Nah." Tori mumbled, her eyes shut and not really aware of what she was answering. Jade reached over Cat and flicked Tori's ear, making her bolt up right. "Ow! That hurt"

"Good." Jade smirked, leaning against the window on her side and looking out of it.

"You shouldn't have said that Tori." Cat whispered as she rested her head onto her girlfriend's shoulder.

"She kicks hard, she might-" Tori started to whisper back.

"It hurt her feelings Babe." Cat replied.

"I'll apologise later." Tori said back stubbornly, yawning as she talked.

* * *

Once the cars stopped, the teens were lead into large glass building which fitted uniformly among the other glass and steel monoliths that seemed to grow right out of the sidewalk. A receptionist seemingly recognised them instantly and handed them all a 'vistors' badge, and told them the directions to the correct room. The teens were sure that without the agents there to remember what she said, they'd have definitely gotten lost. "Here we are." One of the agents said, opening the door for them.

"How'd you remember what she said? There were like 50 instructions." Robbie spoke up as they walked into the room.

"Practice." The agent replied bluntly. "We'll be back when you're done." Both agents turned and walked back the way they came, leaving the teens practicality trapped in a building in which they knew no way to get out of.

"Andre, Beck, Robbie, Cat, Tori Jade, gosh there's a lot of you." A woman said quickly walking up to them. There was a shyness to her, hesitation in her body movements and a softness in her voice. Her cream suit had a tailored look that was bold against her dark skin, flawlessly perfect as someone on TV would be. "I'm Starr Lloyd" She introduced her, "and I'll be your interviewer."

"You already know who we are." Tori laughed, ever the social butterfly.

"That I do, but I hope to learn more about you in this next hour. Follow me." She started to walk away, leading the group to 2 dressing rooms. "Boys in the left and girls in the right, it's hair and makeup time." Beck and Andre groaned at the thought of makeup, but the girls and Robbie (who wears male-makeup sometimes) didn't care as they were all used to it.

* * *

Andre POV

After getting our makeup applied and our hair curled, straightened or twirled back into it's dreadlocks in my case; we were all sent back out of the rooms and along another hallway to the 'interview' room.

"It feels good to be in makeup again." Tori smiled, feeling especially pretty after months without it.

"My skin kinda enjoyed the break from it." Jade spoke up.

"You say that like you've got bad skin." Cat replied. "You've never had any spots."

"I've never had any that I couldn't hide with concealer." Jade replied, walking into the interview room with the rest of us following behind. It was a decently large room, with 2 cameras on tripods positioned to point towards a large couch beside a single chair.

"Good good, you're all here." Starr said, turning away from the man she was talking to, coffee in hand. "Take a seat." She motioned to the couch for us and handed us all small microphones to clip to our shirts before positioned herself on the single chair. "How do we all look?" She asked the man, who was now stood behind one of the cameras, while we clipped out mics onto the necklines of our clothes.

"Good here." He said, pressing a few buttons on the camera to focus on the teens.

"Here too." Another man said, from behind the second camera which was pointed at Starr's chair.

"Good." Starr replied, 'good' seemed to be a buzzword around here. With us all sat on the couch, we expected the interview to start. "Nope, I want you in couples." She said, motioning weird gestures with her hands, stopping when she looked at our confused faces. "You two," She pointed at Beck and Jade who were sat together at the end of the couch. "stay there. You," She pointed at Cat. "sit between those two boys." She motioned to Robbie and I, Cat complied and did so, leaving Tori next to me. "There, that's better, lovely couples."

"Um." Tori spoke up. "We aren't dating," She motioned to me and herself "and nor are they." She pointed at Cat and Robbie. "We are though." She reached over across me and put a hand on Cat's. _Kinda making me feel awkward there Tor'._

"Oh gosh, sorry." Starr fluttered nervously. "You were all wearing pared off outfits, so I just presumed-"

"It's alright." Tori cut her off, smiling comfortingly. "Can we move back or?"

"Of course." Starr blushed as Cat moved back to next to her girlfriend, linking their hands together to make a point. "Let's just start okay?" She nodded to the men who turned on the cameras. "I will ask you all a few questions, you can chose to not reply and we will cut out anything you want us to. Understand?"

We all simultaneously nodded and/or said 'yes', and thus the interview began.

"So let's start at the beginning. What were you all doing when the cloud hit?" She asked.

Robbie decided to speak up to answer this. "We were all in Venice California helping Cat move into her Nonna's apartment when the TV suddenly starting flashing with 'breaking news' telling everyone to take cover."

"Then what happened?" Starr asked, sitting forward in her seat slightly.

"We hid, like the TV said." Jade replied bluntly.

"In Cat's room-" Beck continued, to stop any potential awkwardness that could have come from Jade speaking bluntly like that. "-there was this connected room that was sealed off by a safe. We didn't really know what it was for, but we all climbed inside and found out it was this bunker-like thing. It had enough food to keep us going for a few days, and it kept that gas out."

"Fascinating." Starr said. "So what was it like in there for those few days?"

"Boring." Jade spoke up. "I nearly went mad. There was nothing to do, and all the information we had about the world around us was a news article Tori found on her phone. Even that wasn't much help, it just told us how doomed we were."

"It must have been terrifying, when did you get out?"

"On like the 5th day I think." I spoke up, wanting to actually talk in this thing. "We weren't sure if the air was breathable yet, but we were so desperate to leave that I just climbed out of the saferoom and well clearly it was breathable. After that we ran out of the apartment and to Beck's car."

"What did the world look like outside?"

Questions like this continued for a while, with us just recalling every bit of information we could about the last few months. It was at this point when we realised how cool our story actually was, it'd make a killer movie or book, but no one would ever write about it. We all took turns telling parts of the story: Cat talking about what Dean did (with Tori's help), Robbie going into this dramatic story over how he broke his arm before feeling very embarrassed when Jade cut in saying he'd only fallen out of a tree, and Beck talking about the driving aspect.

"You kids have really been though a lot." Starr said, there was a tone of sadness in her voice that hadn't really left since Cat told her story. "But there had to have been something that brought you all through it."

"The arts." I spoke up. "We all used to go to a performing arts school and we love to sing and act. In Wanko's I found a toy guitar and we'd sing along to it, or perform old acting scenes from plays and exercises we've done."

"Who's the singers and who're the actors?"

"We can all sing." Tori spoke up. ( **A/N I'M SORRY I JUST HAD TO PUT THE MEME IN** )

"I prefer acting more I guess." Beck said.

"You can still carry a tune." Jade said to her boyfriend.

"Who'd you say is the best?" Starr asked.

"We all have such different styles." Cat spoke up, who was still slightly leaning against Tori for comfort over what she had to say earlier.

"Cat has the best range I've ever seen," Tori started. "it's like 4 octaves. Andre's voice is so smooth and he can reach some pretty high notes for a guy. Jade can sing pretty much every genre imaginable and still make it sound good. Robbie... well Robbie" I could see she was mentally searching for a compliment for him. "Robbie's a great ventriloquist." _Good save Tori_

"Tori sung at last year's Platinum Music Awards." Cat spoke up, giving her girlfriend a bit of the limelight.

"That was you? I loved that song you sung 'Make It In America'." Starr beamed.


	26. Chapter 26

Jade POV The next morning

There are many, many things I hate: ducks, people who put ketchup on hot dogs, the word 'moist', the word 'tissue', when someone says "moist tissue" together. But what I hate the most is early mornings. Not even 'hate' is a good enough word to express how I feel, I _despise_ early mornings and today was one of the earliest I've ever had. 4am. They woke me up at 4am for a stupid breakfast show.

"Jade!" Cat yelled at me at 4:15, pulling the covers off of me. "You need to get out of bed!"

"NO!" I screamed back, burying my head further into the pillow.

"JADE!" Tori screamed, pulling the pillow away from under my head.

"Shut up Vega! I'm still not talking to you." I yelled, staying put in the same position, not caring about my lack of a pillow.

"I said I was sorry!" Tori groaned. "I didn't mean what I said!"

"I don't care." I replied bluntly, crossing my arms over my chest. I'm still pissed off at her accusing me of potentially hurting Cat's baby. "She managed to sleep in the middle last night without any problems."

"Then clearly I was wrong!" Tori snapped back. "And I'm sorry!"

"Come on Jadey." I felt Cat sit on the bed beside me and put her hands on my shoulders.

"Fine." I growled, opening my eyes and letting Cat pull me upright on the bed. "When've we gotta be out of here by?"

"Half 4." Tori replied yawing.

"I was asking Cat." I growled.

"Half 4." Cat repeated. "We're going to be on air at 6. Here's your outfit." She handed me a neatly folded pile of my clothes.

"Thanks." I replied, slightly grateful that I didn't have to find my clothes.

"No pro- eek." She started to talk before squealing and running into the bathroom.

"Oh shoot!" Tori yelled, rushing in after her and managing to hold back Cat's hair before the sound of her vomiting echoed in the room.

"Gross." I mumbled to myself, trying to shake the sound from my head. I feel bad for her, this morning sickness keeps coming and going and it's really taking it's toll on her mood.

"Sorry." Cat mumbled, walking out of the bathroom with Tori after brushing her teeth to get rid of the awful taste.

"It's alright Kitty." I smiled at her as I walked past them and into the bathroom, pushing Tori onto the floor as I did so.

"Oi!" I heard Tori yell at me after I'd shut the bathroom door in her face.

* * *

No POV

"Grunch." Tori grumbled from her place, face down on the floor.

"You hurt her feelings." Cat stuck out her hand to help Tori to her feet.

"She hurt my face." Tori replied, rubbing the bridge of her nose, which had just been smashed into the floor.

"You guys ready?" Beck's tired voice called from the other side of the bedroom door.

"Not yet!" Tori yelled back. "Jade's only just got up and we need to put our heels on."

"Well hurry up! We're late." The agents voice called from beside Beck.

"NO WE AREN'T." Tori screamed. "It's only quarter past! Learn how to tell the time!"

"Stay calm Babe." Cat said, giving Tori a quick peck on her lips. "Love you."

"Love you too." Tori replied. "And you look beautiful in that dress."

"Thank you." Cat spun around in her short strapless slightly flared blue dress. "I had one like this in LA, I think I wore it to school a few times."

"I think I remember you wearing it." Tori recalled. "You still look beautiful in it."

"You don't look bad yourself." Cat winked, going on her tiptoes slightly and placing her hands on Tori's shoulders.

"Really? I'm not sure if grey's my co-" She started, before Cat cut her off with another, more passionate kiss. After a few moments, Tori slightly pulled away, smiling. "You're in a kissing mood today aren't you?"

"Uhuh." Cat nodded. "Less talking, more kissing." She replaced her lips onto her girlfriend's, linking her hands together behind Tori's neck.

Jade walked back into the room at this moment, asking about how her outfit looked. "Oh." She said when she looked up and saw her best friend locking lips with her frienemy. "Lets keep it PG shall we." She continued when they ignored her presence. "HEY!" She screamed.

"Hey Jadey." Cat smiled as she pulled away from Tori.

"COME ON GIRLS!" The agent yelled from outside the door.

"Coming!" Cat yelled back, slipping on her 2 inch heels and walking out of the room with the others two following.

* * *

Like the day before, the teens were driven to a TV studio and taken into a dressing room to have their hair and makeup done before being sent to a filming set. This film set was a lot more busy and hectic than the one of the previous day as it was a live broadcast, which meant that everything they said would be shown directly to the whole nation and nothing could be cut out if they made any mistakes. Rightfully so, the teens were freaking out.

The type of show that they were about to star on was a mix between a breakfast news show and a talk show, where there were two main presenters on a large L-shaped couch who would often invite different guests to appear with them. The guests would appear after the presenters went though a quick summary of the morning news, and would sit and talk with them for the rest of the show.

Before they had to go in front of the camera, the teens sat on a row of chairs on the left side of the stage and waited for their cue. "Is it just me who's kinda freaking out right now?" Tori spoke up. "We're about to go on Live TV."

"Can't go any worse than the last time you were on Live TV." Jade smirked, referring to the time Tori got dragged by a dog mid way though singing the national anthem, receiving a glare from the half-Latina.

"Or the time before that, with Dale Squires." Robbie added.

"We don't have a great track record, do we?" Beck spoke up.

"I can't see any dogs, or my angry cousin." Andre said calmly, "So we'll be fine."

"With their last interview going viral, the whole country knows who these teens are." The female presenter, Chloe,'s voice spoke up from the bright red L-shaped couch on stage. "Welcome the, fittingly named, LA survivors."

"LA survivors?" Cat whisper spoke. "Oh right us." She stood up with the others and walked onto the stage, smiling and waving at the cameras.

"It's great to meet you all." The male presenter, Peter, started. Both he and the female presenter (Chloe) were in simple, yet smart attire and looked to be around 30 years of age, sat together on one side of the L for the teens to all sit on the other.

"The pleasure is ours." Beck spoke nervously yet with a calm tone to his voice.

"You charmer." Chloe giggled. Jade made a not so subtle point sit closer to her boyfriend and hold his hand.

"You six have literally blown up over the last day, how does that feel?" Peter asked.

"Figuratively." Robbie corrected. "To have literally blown up, it would mean we-"

"What do you mean?" Tori ask the presenters, cutting off Robbie's awkward rambling.

"Your interview last night, it went viral." Chloe said. "Do you not know?"

"We haven't had much access to the internet." Cat replied shyly.

"Really?" Peter asked, raising an eyebrow. "No phones or anything?"

"We've just been so busy." Jade covered. "Besides, we've gone so long without them, we could last a little while longer until we're better settled."

"Well you interview has got hundreds of millions of views over night, which is pretty impressive." Chloe explained quickly. "You all seem to have a large selection of fans also."

"Really?" Robbie asked.

"Oh yes. Everyone wants to know everything about your story, know your pasts and just generally who you are as people." Chloe continued. "Which brings us onto our first question, could you tell us 3 facts about yourselves?"

"Um alright." Beck started, running a hand though his hair. "Okay. 1st I was born in Canada but moved to LA when I was 5. 2nd I love to act, it's what I want to do with my life. 3rd I'm dating Jade here." He tightened his grip on Jade's hand.

"I think you just broke a few hearts there Beck." Peter chuckled. "You next Jade."

"1. Beck and I have been dating for over 2 years." Jade started bluntly. "2. My full name is Jadelyn, but don't call me that. 3. I've watched every horror movie in existence, even the bad ones."

Cat, who was next to her, went next. "1. My full name is Catarina, you can call me it if you want, but I prefer Cat. 2. I love love love to sing, it's the best thing ever. 3. Ummm this is hard..." She looked over at Tori for help. "I'm dating this amazing girl." She smiled over at Tori, who smiled back before starting her 3 facts.

"1..." She paused to think. "You're right, this is hard. 1. I also love to sing. 2. I sung in last year's Platinum Music Awards. 3. I'm half Latina." She blurted out, not really knowing what else to say.

Robbie went next. "1. I can play guitar. 2. I'm a decent ventriloquist. 3. My favourite food is ice-cream, but I can't really eat it." A pretty random assortment of facts there Robbie.

"1. Like the girls, singing is my passion. 2. I've written over 20 songs. 3. I can play 10 instruments." Andre spoke up.

"Quite a musician I see then." Chloe said to Andre, before changing the subject. "So you're all 17 correct? Are you all going to continue school here is Florida or else where?"

"Cat's still 16," Tori said. "but she's 17 soon and I'm not really sure where we're planning on living yet."

"Do any of you have any relatives that... survived?" Peter said darkly.

"My family were in Idaho at the time." Cat said. "I'm not sure where they are now, but hopefully we'll stay with them."

"Have you had any contact with them yet?" Chloe asked.

"Not yet we've just been so busy." Cat replied quickly. "I can't wait until I do though."

"It's good that you've got people out there still. And for the rest of you, I'm sorry about your losses." Peter said, looking down sadly.

"It hasn't really hit any of us yet." Beck spoke up. "It will do soon, but until then we'll just keep soldiering on."

"Good Lad." Peter said. "Sorry to change the subject so dramatically, but our twitter had been blowing up since you all came on. Would you all be open to answering any questions from the public?"

The teens all nodded in agreement while Chloe pulled out a small pile of cards, each with different tweets on. "User: _CuteKitten_ says 'I got up at 6am to watch you all on the show." She started to read out. "My question is how does Beck get his hair so fluffy?' Bit of an odd question, but go on Beck."

"I get this question more than you think." Beck chuckled. "It's all about using the right conditioner and shampoo." He said.

"Did someone really wake up at 6am to ask that question?" Jade spoke up.

"Apparently so." Peter replied, picking up one of the cards. "User: _PBandJ_ asks 'How long have Cat and Tori been dating? Ps: they're super cute.'"

"Awe thanks PBandJ." Cat giggled.

"We started dating about 2 months ago, but we both liked each other for a while before that." Tori answered.

"You started dating while you were in hiding?" Chloe asked. "What's the story behind that?"

"It's not very romantic." Tori said, not really wanting to tell the story. "We were sat on the floor of the toilets in Wanko's."

"I think it was sweet." Cat replied, trying to act calm and confident. "I'd just found out that I was pregnant and Tori was sat with me, she told me she'd support me so I admitted I had feelings for her and she then asked me out."

"I think that is romantic, it doesn't matter where you were." Chloe smiled at them before picking up another card. "User: _Cookie_Monster_ says 'Andre said that you all liked singing, could you all sing on the show?'"

"I think we can." Andre said, "That's if we have time."

"You've got enough time to sing a song verse and maybe chorus if you want." Peter said, checking the time on his watch.

"Alright, what shall we sing?" Andre looked around at the others.

 _"There's a fire starting in my heart._

 _Reaching a fever pitch and it's bringing me out the dark."_ Tori started singing the Adele song 'Rolling in the deep' as it was the first one that popped into her head.

 _"Finally I can see you crystal clear_

 _Go 'head and sell me out and I'll lay your ship bare."_ Jade and Andre joined in, evening out the deeper tone of the song.

 _"See how I leave with every piece of you."_ Robbie started tapping his foot out to a regular beat while he and Beck joined in.

 _Don't underestimate the things that I will do_

 _There's a fire starting in my heart_

 _Reaching a fever pitch and its bringing me out the dark_

 _The scars of your love remind me of us."_ Cat joined here, harmonising a few notes higher than the others to give the some song texture.

 _They keep me thinking that we almost had it all_

 _The scars of your love they leave me breathless, I can't help feeling_

 _We could have had it all (you're gonna wish you never had met me)."_ Cat belted the higher note out while the Jade, Tori and Andre harmonised lower with it, unable to reach the top. Robbie and Beck sung the backing.

 _Rolling in the deep (Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)_

 _You had my heart inside of your hand (you're gonna wish you never had met me)_

 _And you played it to the beat (tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)."_ On the finally few notes, Tori Jade and Andre met back at the note, assisting her as it got lower.

"Wow kids." Chloe and Peter applauded, along with everyone behind the cameras. "I know you said you could sing, but that was something else."

"You all definitely have a future in the world of singing."

* * *

After the show was finished, the teens were all driven back to the the hotel. The agents told them that they'd be back at 10am the next day to collect them for their talk show, before leaving them all alone again.

"Talk shows, public questions, singing?" Beck said. "Is it just me who thinks things aren't about us surviving anymore, like instead they're trying to make us liked by the public?"

"You mean like they're just using us for views and stuff?" Tori asked.

"Media is a dangerous thing." Jade said darkly. "When something happens, everyone wants a part of it and to milk it for everything it's got. If they can drag this out by making us well known and liked, then they can use us to get more money and stuff like that and now they know we can sing, they're going to use that as a marketing strategy. I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow's chat show has nothing to do with our pasts, and all about making us sing or something."


	27. Chapter 27

Next Day (Day 117)

Jade POV

It's 10:10am now, and the agents have come back, telling us to be ready for 10:30. Looking at myself up and down in the mirror, I feel sexy. My newly dyed black hair is practically shining in the light and going really well with my navy jumpsuit, which by the way is a little tight around my chest but instead of looking silly it gives a little extra lift to them.

Cat and Tori are still getting changed behind me. Cat's wearing the first red dress that the stylists put her in while Tori is wearing a cropped purple shirt with the grey stripped trousers, we all look great by we're definitely missing the makeup to go with it. The agents informed us that we'd have that put on in before the interview.

"We look hot!" Cat giggled as she spun around behind me, her short dress flaring out a little.

"Be careful spinning on those shoes." Tori spoke up from her place sat on the bed, tying the straps on her own, smaller, heels.

"I'm fine." Cat smiled. "I'm gonna take them off anyway." She kicked off the heels and picked them up. "I'm not going to wear them until I have to."

"We all ready then?" Tori asked, her heels now firmly on her feet.

"I guess so." I shrugged, walking out of the room into the main one where Beck was waiting with the two agents.

"No Robbie and Andre?" Tori asked.

"Robbie couldn't get his jumper on and Andre was shaving, I left them in there." Beck smiled, walking over to me. "You look beautiful Baby."

"Thanks." I quickly pecked him on his lips. "You need to wear ties more often." I smiled seductively pulling on his navy tie and adjusting the collar of his white shirt.

"Done it!" Robbie's voice announced as he walked out of the room, his dark-grey crew neck jumper on the backwards over a white collared shirt.

"Not quite." Cat giggled, walking over to him and helping him to spin it the right way around.

"Thanks." Robbie blushed.

"All we're waiting for is Andre, and for Cat to put on her shoes then." One of the agents said, looking at the time on his watch as he spoke.

"Unless you want to join me in wearing 6 inch heels all day, don't tell me what to do about my shoes." Cat spoke up, receiving an unimpressed look from the agent.

"Jeez." Robbie spoke up, looking at Cat's shoes. "They're tall enough to stab someone with."

"Don't test me." Cat said, semi-jokingly.

"Eek." Robbie squealed.

"We all ready to go?" Andre asked, walking into the room in a matching grey t-shirt and blazer, dark shades covering his eyes.

"We are now." The agent replied bluntly, leading us into a elevator. "The Talk Show will be on air at 8pm tonight." He continued. "We will be there for 11am and you will be in hair and makeup until 12, which is when the audience will be brought in."

I kinda started to zone out here, not really caring about anything. Everything was just happening as normal and we followed robotically, getting in the cars and sitting there until we pulled up at a new building. This is where things differed from the previous days, instead of a large glass building, we were greeted by a huge warehouse (like somewhere movies were filmed). I think I underestimated the size of this talk show.

After being introduced to a few people I didn't care about, we were taken on a tour of the warehouse. We were lead along a few corridors and into a large open room with about 15 rows or 20 chairs where an audience would sit. Each of the chairs were facing a long stage with about 6 cameras along it's base, pointed at different sections of the stage. The stage itself was seemingly split into 3 sections, on the left side was the host's desk and a few chairs for guests to sit beside it; a small open-space in the middle, presumably for any guests performing on the stage; and on the right was a band/DJ area for any music to be played from. The tour guide took us down along the audience seats and onto the stage to show us where each camera was pointing, where the mics would best pick up our voices and various other things that I really wasn't listening to. If it was really that important then they'd tell us it again later.

After our brief tour, we were taken to our dressing rooms, which were a lot more fancy than the ones from the previous two days. These ones didn't just have a large mirror and a desk with a few draws of makeup, they had shelves upon shelves stacked with all types of makeup in different colours, brands and styles. Cat, Tori and I were all told to sat down on three separate chairs as these makeup artists started looking at our outfits and trying to woke out which colours would look good on us, talking between themselves as they did so. I could hear snippets of their conversation, such as ' _she has such light blue eyes, I think a blue to silver smoky eye will be nice.'_ I presumed they were talking about me, as Cat and Tori both have brown eyes.

One of the ladies came over to me and started to swatch various foundation shades on my skin, settling for the third to lightest shade, which I personally think is too dark for me, but TV lights make you look pale and compared to the much darker Tori and Cat, I'll already look like a ghost. I guess I'll just have to trust the artist.

* * *

No POV, after the makeup is finished.

The girls all looked very happy with the result of their makeup looks. The women kept there word with Jade's look, opting for a smokey eye look with a light-blue/white inner corner which blended to a navy (which matched her dress) in the middle, which also transitioned to a silver grey on the outer corner.

Cat's lips were a bright red which perfectly matched her dress, and a light to dark brown gradient on her eyelid with a large Cat eye to emphasise her already bold eyes. And yes, she did laugh at the 'Cat'eye pun that Tori made.

Speaking of Tori, her artist opted for a more muted look with very neutral shadow and lip colours, black gel liner with a slight wing and lots of mascara, especially in the outer corners to make her eyes look a little bigger.

"All done." Cat's artist said as she finished blending Cat's fake lashes with her real ones. The girls thanked their artists and left the room to meet the boys backstage. All three boys had had their hair styled and cut slightly, luckily their all had naturally long and slightly styles anyway so they weren't ruined too much during the months without care over them. Robbie's hair was straightened, per his request, and they all had a light covering of stage-makeup to stop them from being too washed out and shiny in the lights.

"Damn girls." Andre wolf-whistled jokingly as the three girls walked into the room in their full outfits, heels and all.

"I know right." Jade smirked, walking over to her boyfriend and putting her hands on his shoulders. "I'd so kiss you right now if I wasn't wearing all this makeup."

"I don't mind getting a little lipstick stuck on my lips." He smiled.

"Yeah, but I don't wanna ruin it." She sighed, pushing him away and taking a few steps back.

"You tease." He said jokingly.

"I try my best." Jade smirked again.

The back-stage room door opened and the show's host walked in. He was a pretty famous man in the post-apocalyptic America, his talk show starting up as the LA ones were being cancelled, taking their viewers with it. "I'm Ryan Price." He introduced himself, his smile was soft with a hint of femininity, his strong bone structure was all male. His dress what impeccable, the suit looking as perfect as they day it was purchased. "I need to get all your names right for the show so Robbie, Beck and Andre." He pointed to each boy correctly his eyes lingering for just a fraction longer than was customary, but in no way long enough to make it uncomfortable. "Cat, Tori and Jade." He moved on to the girls. "Am I right?"

"Yepperoni." Robbie spoke up.

"Ignore him." Andre shook his head at Robbie's weird antics.

"Will do." Ryan said sceptically. "Right, so the audience should be filing in about now. So I'm going to prep you all." He motioned for us to all sit on the couch and pulled up a chair. "The show will air tonight, which means we have strict time constraints for filming so that there is time for editing and such. First of all I will talk with the audience and then introduce you and ask some questions, just be relaxed and answer honestly like you did yesterday. It may be in front of an audience, but if it comes down to it we can cut any errors out of the final show." All the teens visibly relaxed over this. "Just smile and talk."

"Talk on a talk show, who knew." Jade mumbled sarcastically.

"After we talk." Ryan continued. "We'll play a prize game."

"A game?" Tori asked, "What game?"

"I can't tell you or it'll ruin it." Ryan replied.

"That sounds ominous."

"It really isn't." Ryan chuckled, standing up from his chair. "I've got an audience to go interact with. I'll send someone to collect you once we start recording." As he finished talking he walked back out of the room.

* * *

Tori POV

A few minutes after Ryan left, another man came into the room and handed us all microphones to clip to our outfits before he lead us along the corridor and to the stage area where Ryan was sat on behind his desk, waiting for his cue to start talking. The studio audience was hushed in anticipation and he started to talk, looking at the camera to inform the future views of the shows events. The audience cheered and clapped when he mentioned that we'd be on. He talked and bantered with the audience for a few minutes before inviting us onto the stage.

Jade walked out first, hand intertwined with Beck, they were the definition of confident, striding out to Ryan and shaking is hand before sitting beside each other. Cat and I walked out a few paces behind, Cat smiling to the audience, slightly swinging her hand with mine tightly locked around it, I tried to act as confident as I could but even after years of performing I still get slightly stage-nervous. Ryan shook both our hands as we approached him. Next were Robbie and Andre, walking as far apart as possible to empathises that they were not a couple, Ryan also shook their hands before they sat down and he returned to the seat behind his desk.

"Don't they look stunning Ladies and Gentlemen." Ryan announced, the cameras splitting between recording us and the audience's cheering and whooping for us. "Have you all been enjoying Florida so far?" He asked us.

"We haven't really left our hotel room yet." I spoke up honestly. "But the Jacuzzi in there is to die for."

"Jacuzzi? Where is this hotel, I want to come." Ryan replied jokingly, trying to ignore that I said we've just been kept inside all week. "So how are you all taking to your new found fame?"

"I wouldn't call it fame." Beck said humbly.

"Your thousands of Twitter and Instagram followers says different." Ryan said.

"... thousand?" Beck spoke up. "I have like two hundred followers on each of them."

"Have you been living under a rock?" Ryan said back. "Ever since your first interview your social medias have been exploding."

"We don't have phones to check them." Cat said, repeating her point from yesterday's interview.

"Oh gosh right." Ryan chuckled to himself. "We'll get back to that later. But did you all seriously not know about your follower count? People from all across the country are obsessed with you."

"Why'd they do that?" Andre said. "We're just normal teens."

"'Normal teens' who survived an apocalypse and are super talented." Ryan gushed. "Speaking of which, you all grew up in Los Angeles and went to Hollywood Arts School didn't you?" We all nodded. "We managed to find some clips of your performances, would you like to see them?" He turned to the audience who all clapped and cheered. "This is their old school play adaptation of 'Uptown, Downtown' by Sophia Michelle."

We all looked worriedly at each other when Ryan pointed a remote at a large screen behind us which suddenly turned on with a final part of the play from over a year ago, most of our performances were recorded and posted on the school website so it doesn't surprise us that they have this footage. My face (covered in Cat's makeup mask) appeared on the screen and I felt myself go bright red. On the screen the camera shot zoomed out to reveal Beck stood beside me and we reach out to hold hands, I could see a flicker of anger in Jade's eyes from a few places along the couch. On screen, Beck and I started singing and dancing and others joined us on the stage. The scene continued for a few moments before cutting out.

"We look like babies there." Robbie spoke up.

"How long ago was that?" Ryan asked. "A year?" We nodded. "I've seen the real version of that play, so I must ask, why was your face covered in monster makeup Tori?"

"It's a long story." I shook my head. "Basically I promised to help Cat with her makeup class and she accidentally used super glue instead of makeup glue so it got stuck."

"Oof." Ryan gulped. "Bet that hurt coming off."

"I said I was sorry like 400 times." Cat cut in, making the audience laugh.

"We have another clip here." Ryan started playing another clip from one of Sikowitz' more acting-based plays where Beck and Jade were having an onstage fight. "You two really sold that scene to me there." He complement the couple as the scene ended. "You clearly are great actors."

"It's 'cause we were actually fighting." Jade spoke up, making the audience lightly laugh.

"She won the fight if you're wondering." Beck joked.

"She always wins." Andre spoke up. "He's whipped." He said to the audience.

"There is another couple here." Beck reminded jokingly. "Why don't you pick on them?"

"They can't." I added. "Our fights are always pretty even."

"What you were meant to say there is 'we don't fight'." Cat said from beside me, nuzzling into me slightly.

"Oh right yeah, that's true too." I blushed,

Sensing our antics were coming to an end, Ryan changed to subject to keep the chat flowing. "Earlier you mentioned you didn't have phones. Now, we may or may not have a quick game for you all, where you could potentially win yourself 6 new Pear Phones."

"Really?" Cat beamed, always the phone addict.

"How about it guys?" He turned to the audience. "Shall we play 'finish the lyric?" The audience's cheers were a resounding yes. "Come on then."

* * *

No POV

Ryan got up from his desk and lead the teens along the stage to the middle section where there were 6 microphone stands and one podium on the left side. Each of the teens stood behind one of the mics, guessing that was what they were meant to do, and waited for further instructions. "This game is pretty self explanatory." Ryan started, standing behind the podium. "I press this button and a snippet of a random song will play and one of you needs to finish the lyrics. There will be 12 songs and you need to get at least 8 right to get your phones, you will only get the point if the lyrics, melody and pitch are correct."

"Oh God." Beck said into his mic, making the audience laugh slightly. "We loose points if we can't sing? Can I volunteer to not?"

"You have a great voice Beck." Ryan said, "That clip of the play showed it quite well." He complemented. "For now though, let's play." He pressed the button and the Bruno Mars song 'Grenade' Started playing. The teens all looked at each other for who was going to continued the song;

 **" _I'd catch a grenade for ya (yeah yeah)_**

 ** _Throw my head on a blade for ya (yeah yeah)_**

 ** _I'd jump in front of a train for ya (yeah yeah)_**

 ** _You know I'd do anything for ya (yeah yeah)_**

 ** _Oh whoa oh."_**

Andre pulled his mic off of the stand and started to continue the lyrics. " _I would go through all this pain,_

 _Take a bullet straight through my brain_

 _Yes I would die for you baby_

 _But you won't do the same_

 _No no no no_ "

The audience applauded as Andre finished singing and Ryan awarded the teens a point. He pressed the button again and the song 'Somewhere Only We Know' by Lily Allen started to play. The teens once again looked around at each other, none of them knowing the lyrics;

 ** _"I walked across an empty land_**

 ** _I knew the pathway like the back of my hand_**

 ** _I felt the earth beneath my feet_**

 ** _Sat by the river, and it made me complete"_**

Jade's eyes suddenly lit up as she remembered the song lyrics from an advert she's seen. " _Oh, simple thing, where have you gone?_

 _I'm getting old, and I need something to rely on_

 _So tell me when you're gonna let me in_

 _I'm getting tired, and I need somewhere to begin."_

The audience once again applauded as she finished, Ryan awarded another point and pressed again. The song 'Five Fingers to the Face' started to play,

 ** _[Hook before Verse 2]_**

 ** _"Five fingers to the face_**

 ** _Five fingers to the face_**

 ** _Five fingers to the face_**

 ** _Five fingers to the face"_**

From the many jam session the teens had together, they knew it ended at the part Beck normally sung, so they all looked over to him. " _I love Martina, Vanessa, and Georgina. It's a ladies choice, so Ima' make sure to make some noise._ " He sung he bare minimum for their point, worried that if he continued he may be off key and loose points.

The game continued for a few minutes, with the teens getting more and more comfortable as they went. Next went Tori who sung the next set of lyrics for 'California Gurls' by Katy Perry, the irony was quickly pointed out by Ryan, making everyone laugh. The list of songs continued as such:

5) Titanium by David Guetta ft Sia - Cat

6) A Team by Ed Sheeran - Robbie

7) The Other Side by Jason Derulo - Andre

8) Domino by Jessie J - Tori

9) Bad Romance by Lady Gaga- Jade

10) Mirrors by Justin Timberlake - Beck

11) Riptide by Vance Joy - Robbie

"You've already gotten more than 8 points, so there's really no point in continuing." Ryan said,"But I'm just having too much fun, let's go for a hard one shall we?" He pressed the button again and the song 'Emotions by Mariah Carey' started to play.

 ** _"I feel good, I feel nice_**

 ** _I've never felt so satisfied_**

 ** _I'm in love, I'm alive_**

 ** _Intoxicated, flying high"_**

When it finished the teens were all silent. "None of you know?" Ryan asked.

"I know it." Tori spoke into her mic. "But the next bit has a whistle note in it, none of us can reach that."

"One of you try." Ryan pushed, not quite knowing how hard one of those is. All the teens looked at Cat.

"Whaty?" She said cutely, confused as to why they were looking at her, the audience awed at her.

"You have the highest voice." Andre said. "You've got the best shot."

"Go on Cat, bring it home with full points." Ryan said.

"Um, okay." Cat said, humming to herself as a makeshift warm-up. _"It feels like a dream_

 _When you touch me tenderly_

 _I don't know if it's real_

 _But I like the way I feel inside."_ The final note she sung was so high that it was almost inaudible, definitely a whistle note.

"Woah Cat!" Tori yelled, pulling her girlfriend into a hug while the audience applauded.

"I didn't know you could do that." Andre said.

"Nor did I." Cat said, rubbing her throat slightly.

"That was amazing guys." Ryan said. "12/12 which means..." Another man came on stage, handing each of the teens a PearPhone box containing their new phones. "You won your phones!"


	28. Chapter 28

No POV

There is a biological need to fit in, something that spikes in the teenage years, and with the creation of Social Media, that need becomes exaggerated. It becomes and addiction, a want to fit into society, to be accepted and loved, and even after being away from it for so long, as soon as the teens finished their interviews, they all automatically logged into their old social medias. Even with the lack of a sim card and using the hotel's Wifi, the teens were once again connected to the World Wide Web.

Tori was sat on the couch after posting a picture of her, Jade and Cat in their outfits, perusing her social media page. Someone had new shoes from that designer store all the girls talked about and someone else's boyfriend had bought her a bunch of roses. She clicked like on both. Scrolling down there were her aunt's vacation photos, gorgeous, she clicked "like" again but by now there was a tense feeling she couldn't shake. She kept on scrolling, adverts from companies and posts of grinning friends, all so happy. Sinjin had posted a pic of a piece of trash, normal Sinjin behaviour, but the feeling hadn't left her. She paused to check her messages, she had one or two from people asking for homework so she clicked on it to reply before her face fell. The sent date was from February. She quickly went back onto her page and looked at the dates of the photos, all February. She slammed her phone down onto the couch beside her as all the realisation hit, these were all unseen photos from before the attack... and now all these people are dead or infected fighting to survive. Either way they're gone now.

"Dude!" Andre yelled as he looked at his own social media page. "40K followers! I have 40 thousand twitter followers! How is that even possible?!"

"A lot of people seemed to like us." Jade said, sighing as she unfollowed a lot of now unused accounts.

"Who's got the most followers?" Robbie asked.

"We're not going through that again." Cat spoke up, remembering the fiasco over them competing for TheSlap followers in the past.

"Either way I'm gonna try and keep all of these followers." Andre spoke up. "Wanna record a quick cover with me so I can post it?"

"I'm going to go lay down for a bit I think." Cat said, starting to walk away.

"It's only 6pm though." Jade said.

"Yeah well you try carrying around a baby for nearly 4 months." Cat snapped back, opening the door to her bedroom.

"Well sorry." Jade mumbled sarcastically.

"Anyone?" Andre repeated his song offer.

"I'm going to go with Cat." Tori said, getting up and walking out of the room.

"I'll do it." Jade offered. "What song?"

"Let's do one my mine." Andre replied.

When Tori walked into her room, she expected to see her girlfriend curled up in the middle of the bed, having the 'lay down' that she's said previously. Instead, Cat was stood looking intensely at her baby bump in the mirror, showing her bump and the few faint stretchmarks along it. "What ya thinking about Babe?" Tori asked, snapping Cat out of her baby-induced trance.

"Do I look big for 15 weeks?" Cat asked her, placing one hand on her decently sized bump.

"You need to stop thinking you're fat-" Tori started, repeating what she always said when her girlfriend talked about her insecurities.

"I didn't say I was 'fat'." Cat snapped suddenly. "Unless you think I'm fat."

"I'd never Baby." Tori replied quickly. "You're beautiful." She walked up behind her girlfriend and looked over her shoulder into the mirror.

"Sorry for snapping." Cat recoiled, her mood swings rocking her emotions suddenly. "I'm just worried. I look way bigger than all the photos I just saw on google."

"Every pregnancy is different Babe, besides you're so small it's bound to look bigger on you." Tori lightly held onto her girlfriend's shoulders and spun her around. "Either way, you're beautiful." She kisses Cat on the forehead and lead her onto the bed to lay down.

* * *

Tori POV ( _Btw I've never written anything like this before, so let's see how this goes_ )

As we sat on the bed, about to lay down, our eyes locked. I took in her whole appearance, even with her lack of makeup and effort to her appearance, I saw beauty. Her eyes were a rich brown that stole your breath while looking through your soul. Her hair was like a mousy-brown waterfall that tumbled down her back in thick locks. Her hands were strong yet at the same time gentle. And her mouth… oh, how I wanted to kiss that mouth.

And so I did. It wasn't like one of those close-mouthed kisses like you do when you're in eighth grade and you've never held hands before with a girl. It was full on, open-mouthed, almost sexual kiss. And I loved it. I loved the way her small body melted into mine. The way our lips fit like two puzzle pieces. The way she purred as I played with her hair and held her tighter and tighter. When we broke away after what seemed like ages she looked at me... like she wanted it too.

She pulled me back in for another fiery and passionate kiss. Her hands work their way around my body, feeling each crevasse, as I did the same on each line of her perfect physique. She laid on her back as I matched her body's form. We pulled apart again and opened our eyes, staring deep into each other's eyes. Cat's full of wonder and love, mine full of curiosity and passion. No words were spoken but a story worthy of them was communicated.

I lent in and softly kisses up and down her neck, making her let out little whimpers of anticipation. I worked my way back to her tender, smooth lips. As we kissed she rolled me over and laid on top of my body. She ran her lips up my neck and landed a loving and intense kiss on my lips. I snuck my hand up and ran it through her hair, as the kisses become harder and more urgent. My other hand slid around her waist, and pulled her closer to mine so that she was practically melting into my body, her kisses were now back on my neck and collar bone.

This is by far the furthest we've ever gone with each other, due to a mixture of inexperience and not being ready yet. Testing the waters slightly, I removed my hand from her waist and slowly moved it up her shirt, past her baby bump and onto her bra, being careful to not hurt her due to the sensitive skin. Her moan of approval allowed me to continued as I lowered her bra and moved my hand over her breasts, I could feel her heart beat quicken as I used my other hand to fully remove her shirt. For a second she stopped kissing my collar bone and I was worried I'd gone too far, but by her tugging on the hem of my shirt I realised that she was trying to pull it off of me. I sat up slightly to give her to room to pull it off of me and discard it across the room. I felt electricity in my skin, hormones shutting down everything around us, from there on in it was all passion, intense, and intoxicating lust. In these moments she loves me with her eyes has much as her body, our souls mingling in the quiet moments between action and stillness. The cool room already feels warm. It's hard to hold back, to make the moment last and take it slow.

Our need to breathe begins to fail us as we continued to caress each other's upper bodies, so Cat slowly pulled away and sat more upright on top of me. "I love you." She whispered between deep inhale, melting into the space on the bed beside me.

"I love you too." I smiled back at her, curling her body close to mine as we laid there in a moment of pure bliss and exhaustion.

She tilted her head upwards to look at me again. "You're going to have a killer hickey there in the morning." She giggled, curling back up to me.

"Oh god." I gulped, we have another interview tomorrow, that's gonna be hard to explain.

"Shall we put our shirts back on?" She whispered, adjusting her bra so that it was actually covering her again.

"Nah." I whispered back, too happy with the moment.

"But Jade-"

"Won't be in here till she needs to sleep tonight." I finished, pulling her in even tighter. "Just lay with me Babe."

* * *

No POV A few hours later

"Woah." Jade recoiled, covering her eyes from what she'd just walked in on. "Get a room!" She said to her two best friends, who were currently laying on the bed, shirtless, in each other's arms.

"We did." Tori yawned, waking up from her nap. "You just walked into it."

"Yikes Vega, nice hickey." Jade cringed at the reddish-blue mark forming on the girl's neck.

"No regrets." Tori said back, not bothering to look up at the goth.

"You two gonna stop talking?" Cat yawned from Tori's arms. "Your voice keeps vibrating on my back and I need my sleep."

"I'm gonna sleep on the couch in the main room." Jade said, walking straight back out of the room, shaking her head as she did so.

"We need to apologise to her." Cat said quietly.

"We'll do it tomorrow."


	29. Chapter 29

A few days later (Day 121/June 18)

Cat POV

Over. It's all over. We just finished our last public appearance (which consisted of another talk show were we had to answer more questions and do some acting sketches). I mean I hope we have, the agents said tomorrow that we'd be moved out of the hotel room and they've found new arrangements for us. I don't really know what that means, so I'm just presuming they've found a place for us to stay and live out our lives.

We're still in the talk show building, collapsed onto a couch or the floor in one of the backstage rooms and are waiting for the agents to drive us back to the hotel room.

The door opened and our eyes lit up. Robbie and Andre sat up from the floor, but then sat straight back down again as they saw that the person walking in wasn't one of the agents. It was a man, presumably in his late twenties, his face told of a lean body beneath his suit and his expression was serious but not unkind. He had that salt 'n' pepper look to his hair, against his still youthful skin he had the kind of look that would make some girls take a second look. He introduced himself formally, giving his business title, telling us that he was ran a performing arts agency. So he was an agent, just not the kind we were expecting. He talked to us for a while, saying that he was impressed by our singing and acting skills wanted to offer us all a place in his company, obviously we were all over the moon.

"You're serious right?" Beck said slowly.

"100 percent." The man, who's name we discovered was James, replied. "I've got all the papers in here." He opened up his briefcase and handed each of us a pile, Robbie and Beck had ones labelled 'Actors' and the rest of us had 'Singers'. Quickly flicking through the papers it was everything I could have ever dreamed of, an automatic sighing to a record company, private sessions to strengthen my vocals, this was my chance to be a singer I could... _I_ _couldn't_. I felt my heart drop and my world crash down around me, I'm pregnant, I can't start my carrier now. I'm about to me a mother I... I just...

"I'll be back in 10 minutes," James said, "Use that time to read this all over and make up your minds." He said kindly before turning and leaving as quickly as he entered.

"I don't know about you lot but I'm gonna go find a pen to sign this with." Tori beamed, scanning her eyes over the papers.

"Same here." Beck chuckled. "Getting signed to an agency could lead to movies and the start of my career."

"This is my ticket to write and sing my songs." Andre added. "I'm signing."

"I'm not sure." Jade said, receiving a strange look from the 3 previous speakers. "What? I don't want to be singer, we aren't all like Vega."

"I'm sure he could sign you to an acting agency instead." Beck spoke up.

"Don't get me wrong, I like acting." Jade sighed, putting down the papers. "But I'm a writer and director, not an actress."

"Come on Jade, just try it." Beck said to his girlfriend.

"What about you two?" Andre said to Robbie and I.

"I'm gonna read all the details first." Robbie said, looking at the legal aspects of the papers. "But I think it's worth a shot."

"What about you Babe?" Tori asked me, noticing my lack of excitement or input.

"I... I can't." I mumbled, my voice unable to go any louder for some reason.

"Why not?" She asked, walking over to me. "Being a singer is your dream."

I shook my head and looked away, taking a step backwards. "I'm nearly 5 months away from being a mom, Tori."

I watched her face drop as she realised. "I'm not signing it." She said bluntly.

"What?" I snapped back around to face her again. "No, you're not throwing this all away too."

"I have to." She said sadly. "I promised I'd be by your side everyday, I can't go around making songs if I'm going to keep that promise."

"Vega." Jade said, was both turned to face her, and the others who had been silently watching us. "You'll complain for the rest of your life if you don't take this chance, and I really can't be asked to put up with that. I'm not signing mine so I'll help her out when you can't okay."

"Jade, you're not throwing this away either." I spoke up.

"I don't want it anyway." She replied stubbornly. "Besides I still owe you one from Middle School."

"O... okay." I sighed, looking down at my feet. I did need someone to stay and help me out, but I wish it didn't come at such a cost.

"Thank you Jade." Tori smiled at the goth.

"Don't mention it. Seriously don't."

So that was that, they were all going to sign their papers and take this chance, leaving Jade and I to look after the baby. James explained that he'd give them all a few weeks to settle down into our new lives before he called them back. Tori and Andre would start writing and producing songs, and eventually compiling an album. Beck and Robbie would start acting auditions. With the 4 of them buzzing with joy, he said goodbye and left with their signed papers.

* * *

That night I barely got any sleep, my brain constantly thinking about that lost opportunity. As I laid in the middle of the bed between Tori and Jade, I tried to count sheep and relax, but soon the sheep were reminding me of the blunder I made during the day, sending my mind into a spiral of flashbacks as to why I was forced to make the decision. A lack of sleep isn't a foreign concept to me, some nights my thoughts are plagued by flashbacks and my dreams dissolve into nightmares. When I finally sleep I wake after only a couple of fitful hours and wake as if a whole night had passed, but it hasn't. I wish I could be one of those people who roll over and doze off but I can't. I can either lie in my bed watching the colour slowly seep back into the walls, waiting for the dawn chorus, or I can get up.

I sat upright and slid off of the end of the bed, careful to not wake up Tori or Jade. Picking up my phone I see the time is 3:38am. Midnight marked 16 weeks since I was raped, yes I'm now openly calling it that, which means I'm slowly getting closer and closer to the birth of my child. I slowly tiptoed out of the bedroom and into the main room, sitting on the floor by the large window, showing me a pretty spectacular view of the Miami skyline. Living in the heart of a LA, I had grown used to having the warming, orange glow of streetlamps outside my window, their light filtering in through the gaps in the curtains, so looking down at the vibrant town reminded me of home. Well, Florida was technically my first home, so that might add to the feeling of familiarity. I hear a noise behind me and snap my head back to the empty room, no matter how long it's been I'll never get over that nagging fear that there's someone lurking to hurt me. After scanning the room with my phone flashlight, I focus my attention back on to view in front of me, subconsciously I placed a hand on my bump and rubbed it slightly in a weak attempt to release some of the pain from the stretched skin. It's been a while since I've had some proper alone time, well mother and baby time I guess it is more.

"Ciao Bambino." I whispered to my baby, flexing my Italian. I get a sudden flashback of something my mother told me when I was younger, it was that she always talked to me in Italian when she was pregnant, in an attempt to get me ready for my bi-lingual life. I guess it worked because now I'm fluent in both languages, though I do think that's because that's what we'd speak at home. "Vorrei che si poteva vedere questo. È bellissimo. ( _I wish you could see this. It's beautiful._ ) Ti sarebbe piaciuto, beh penso che si farebbe. Non so che cosa gradite, imparerò presto però. Spero che ti piace di me, si dovrebbe, perché io sono tua madre.( _You'd like it, well I think you would. I don't know what you like, I'll learn soon though. I hope that you'd like me, you should because I am your Mom.)"_

"Cat?" Tori's sleepy voice said from behind me.

"Sì." I replied, forgetting to switch back to English. "I mean 'Yes'. Did I wake you?"

"No." She yawned, walking over and sitting beside me. "Jade kicked me in her sleep and I noticed you weren't between us, I don't know how you take so many of her kicks in the night."

"You get used to it." I replied, weakly smiling.

"What were you saying when I walked in?" She asked, resting her head on my shoulder. "It sounded Spanish but I couldn't understand it so I'm guessing it wasn't."

"It was Italian." I told her.

"You know Italian?" She asked. "I mean I know you have Italian blood by I didn't know it was that strong."

"Both my parents were born in Sorrento." I said. "They moved over here with my Mama's parents a few years before my brother was born. They spoke Italian to me when I was growing up."

"So you can speak English, Spanish and Italian?" She asked, shocked.

"I can't speak much Spanish." I replied. "You're the fluent one."

"Sé un poco." She replied.

"The languages cross over quite a bit." I said. "'Poco' means 'a little' in both languages."

"Interesting." She said. "Te amo." She said 'I love you' in Spanish.

"Ti amo."I replied, changing the first word to reply in Italian. "Even love is universal."

"That's deep." She laugh-whispered.

"Let's get back to bed shall we?" I spoke up.

"Kay kay." She said back, before pausing at what she'd just said. "You're rubbing off on me Cat."

* * *

 **I'd like to add that I'm not Italian, nor can I speak the language, but for this story there will be a few parts in Italian. I am trying really hard to make sure all the translations are correct but they won't all be perfect. Sorry.**


	30. Chapter 30

Jade POV

I know I'm a pessimistic person, that's my thing, but when I say we're screwed, I really mean it. We have no where to go, and even if we did we have no way to contact only people that we could even remotely think of are Cat's parents, who are in Idaho last time we checked, and my father who was on holiday in France. There is no fucking way that we are going to him, even if it turned out he was here in Florida, I'd rather go to a homeless shelter then spend another night under the same roof as that drunken bastard. Even though all my pessimism, I still think there's a chance we can find the Valentines. I love Cat's family, they're honestly the nicest people ever. I spent most of my childhood in their home, finding refuge when my dad was still living with us. I would have stayed there forever, but when Jackson was born and my dad took of with his new wife, I had to stay at home and help my Mom.

Maria and Leo, Cat's parents, practically raised me from the age of 5 when Cat first introduced me to them when my Dad hadn't picked me up from Kindergarden one day. They got his number from the school office and tried to call him, when there was no reply they took me to their home and looked after me until he eventually picked me up at 7pm, a strong stench of alcohol on his breath. They refused to let him drive me home, so Leo drove us both back in Dad's car and then waked home on his own. I don't remember much about that night other than Leo talking to my Mom for a solid half an hour, telling her that if she ever had to work late again, he would pick me up from school instead of my Dad. And thus began the start of Maria and Leo looking after me every Friday after school, making the day quickly become my favourite one of the week. Sometimes, Cat and I would have sleepovers and they'd take me out somewhere the next day to give me the childhood I was missing at home.

As we got older the stays became longer as my home-life got worse, especially the 3rd Grade when my dad got fired making his drinking worse and violent side start to come out. Because of this, I started to stay with Cat's house from Friday to Sunday every week to keep me safe. My Mom hated that I was being practically being raised by other people, but deep down she knew that she couldn't protect me from my father, so keeping me away was a good thing. I still stayed at home on the weekdays, so that my Mom could still see me and take me to school and so that I wasn't 100 percent reliant on the Valentines. Life stayed like this, for a while, the Valentines made me feel like I was really part of their family, doing everything from taking me on holidays with them, to bringing me along when Raffaele (her brother) was in hospital. I had a permanent bed in Cat's room for me to sleep in every time I stayed, and a space in her wardrobe for all the clothes they'd brought me, it really was a home away from home for me.

But in 5th Grade it all changed because my Mom fell pregnant with Jackson. As soon as she told my dad the news he took off with all her savings, claiming that '2 kids was too much work', like he ever had any part in raising me. With no money, and a baby on the way, my Mom started to work every day from 7am-7pm and I stayed with the Valentines for months until Jackson was born, and then she cut down her work to a regular weekday 9-5 job. This meant that she needed my help on the weekends, so the Valentines would only look after me for the 2 hours after school until my Mom picked me up after getting Jackson from daycare. Eventually as I got older, my Mom started telling me to collect Jackson myself so I couldn't stay with with the Valentines anymore.

It is the role of the parent to be the "rock" for their child, and never meant to be the other way around like it became for me. Children may be "anchors," their needs and love keeping their parent grounded, but that is where the lines are drawn. When a parent leans on their child, unless the child has grown into a mature adult, damage is caused. It is not the natural order for support to go be given from child to adult, though their love may indeed be a kind of invisible healer. Children should not be weighed down with the worries of adults; concerns such as global warming they have no hand in and no way to cure. When parents are truly "grown ups," children can enjoy childhood, growing to be joyous and loving; they are then ready to be good parents themselves having learnt from good examples. My mother used me as her "rock" and outlet, and I hated it.

This is when my depression hit. Suddenly, I didn't have my home away from home anymore and I was away form the people who cared about me the most. Cat tried her best to save me from my depressive spiral, but there is only so much you can do during school recess, however it did work a little bit and she eventually convinced me to go to Hollywood Arts with her once we finished the 8th Grade. I haven't really spoken to Cat's family since then, and I cant really remember what fully pulled us apart, but whatever it was I wish it didn't.

"What you thinking about Babe?" Beck asked from the bed beside me, we've just been laying here for the last half an hour to have some alone time.

"Wouldn't you like to know." I replied quickly.

"I would." He replied calmly.

"Just stuff." I said bluntly, not really in the mood for talking about it. A knock on the door interrupted us, saving me from having to tell him what I was thinking about. "Yeah?" I called out.

"Are you decent?" Cat's voice called from the other side of the door.

"Yep, we aren't you and Tori!" I said, smirking.

"Really?" Cat replied, opening to door to reveal her unimpressed look. "The agents are here and they wanted to speak to us all." She turned and slammed the door behind her as she left.

"That was mean Babe." Beck told me, sitting upright and helping me up.

"Well, I'm a mean person." I replied, groaning over the fact I had to get off of the bed. He quickly pecked me on the lips as we walked out of the room and into the main room where everyone else was sat on the couch or the floor in front of the two agents. "What'd you want now?" I snapped.

The agents both gave me a short glare before one of them started to talk. "You'll each get a bag and envelope," he started to hand each of us a very full looking envelope and a simple looking black backpack, "put all your stuff into the bags and-"

"WOAH!" Robbie yelled, cutting off the man. "There's gotta be like $1000 in here!" He pulled a few $100 bills out of his envelope and held them up.

"There is exactly $1000 in each of them." One of the agents said nonchalant. "It's for your TV appearances, you can use it to get onto your feet."

I opened my own envelope, $1000 is a lot of money, but not enough to get onto our feet with. "That's not enough for anything, we can't get a house or-"

"That's why we've organised a place for you to stay." The agents replied. "We got in contact with Cat's parents and they are willing to take you all in."

I saw Cat's face light up, and I couldn't help but smile myself. "Really?" Cat beamed, squealing with joy.

"Yes, they've given us an address that's about a half an hour drive from here." One of the agents began before Cat cut him off.

"That's strange, my parents live in Idaho." Cat said.

"They used to live in Idaho." The agent corrected before continuing with his speech. "The quicker you all get packed the quicker you can all leave." The agent said, making all 6 of us teens spring to our feet and rush into our rooms to start packing up all our stuff.

We were finally leaving.

* * *

The drive over was one of the most drawn out moments of my life, I couldn't stop my heart from racing as we got closer and closer to freedom. For once we were all moved in one vehicle, an 8 seater minivan, which was weird but it gave Cat and I an opportunity to brief everyone about what it was like living with the Valentines. "Chances are they'll speak in Italian." Cat started. "So learn it quick especially if you get in trouble because that involves a lot of fast talking."

"And if Maria offers seconds, you need to take it. Trust me, she's an amazing cook but she's very sensitive about her food." I chuckled, remembering the many meals at the Valentine household.

"Oh god, do you remember Thanksgiving 2008?" Cat giggled to me, I nodded remembering the day very well. "Jadelyn!" She mocked her mother's loud fast talking strong accent. "Mangia e statti zitto!"

"Da che pulpito viene la predica!" I replied, able to translate the saying ' _Eat and shut up_ ' and counteract with ' _Look who's talking_!' with ease after the years of the fast spoken Italian. "Cancellare il vostro piatto Caterina!" ' _Clear your plate Caterina_ '. I mocked Maria's accent aswell and we burst into laughter as the others gave us confused looks.

"What was that?" Andre spoke up.

"What you're gonna have to get used to." Cat giggled, feeling a sense of joy over us talking in Italian together, something we haven't done in years.

"Oh God." Andre replied.

"Anything else we need to know?" Beck spoke up.

"Oh yeah, so you know my brother has problems?" Cat said.

"Well... from what you've told us we've all guessed that." Robbie cringed slightly.

"Well Raffaele is... well just leave him to his thing and nothing will happen. He is totally normal most of the time, but he has Dissociative Identity Disorder and one of his 'alters' is pretty violent, basically if that alter comes out, then just tell my parents and they'll have to lock him away." She said slowly.

"That sound horrible for him." Tori said.

"It really is, the alter controls him." She sighed. "That's why he went to the Mental Hospital, to help himself control his alters. Most people can't do it, but that's because they use it as a way to cope with traumas, his just came on for no reason so there's a chance he can suppress them. And if they've already left Idaho then it means he did it quicker than expected." She rambled slightly.

"I miss Raffa." I added to lighten to mood. "He always did the wackiest stuff."

"Remember that time he flooded the whole house and we had to stay in a motel for a week?" Cat laughed.

"Oh god, everything was wrecked!" We started laughing over our reminiscence.

"I'm not sure whether to be excited or scared now." Beck spoke up, nervously laughing.

The car pulled onto the drive of a Spanish styled home with that classical beauty which you can rarely find elsewhere. The asymmetrical layout, arched doorway, curved roof tiles, and stucco exterior walls, contrasted well with the lush green natural garden. The whole house exhibit an alluring Mediterranean charm that was hard to miss, perfect for Cat's family. As we all bundled out of the car, the agents said their goodbyes before driving away and leaving us alone on this driveway.

Alone, until a couple in their early 40s burst out of the house. It was unmistakably Maria and Leo, they hadn't even remotely aged since I last saw them, still looking as young and youthful as ever. They had decided to have children young, Raffaele at 19 and Cat at 23, so the resemblance between mother and daughter was as if they were sisters. They had the same brown slightly wavy locks, the same olive tanned skin and same big brown eyes. Leo wasn't much different, his hair a slightly more sandy-brown than the girls, but the eyes the same, he even had the sample dimple on his left cheek.

Maria ran out first and eloped Cat in her arms, sobbing into her daughter's shoulders while the rest of us stepped back and watched the reunion unfold before us, feeling a pang of envy over our own families. Leo joined them, both of them holding Cat in their arms for dear life as if she would leave them again. "Bambina." Leo chocked out as he held his daughter and wife close to him. "Ci sei mancato ( _We missed you.)"_

 _"_ Mi mancavi troppo ( _I missed you too)_." Cat sobbed into her father's shoulders.

After after a few moment, Leo looked up and mad eye contact with me. "Jadelyn." He said slowly, moving away from his wife and daughter and opening his arms up for me. I looked back at the others who motioned for me to go forward, and slowly I took a few steps closer. "You've grown so much." He said softly as he pulled me towards him. Out of anyone else's mouth that would have sounded creepy, but this man was like a father to me, and I know he meant it as such. "It's been way too long." I felt comfort in his arms, they were strong and protecting, like a father should be.

"I know." I said my voice breaking slightly, still tightly wrapped in his arms. "I'm sorry."

"It's all okay Jade." He said softly before pulling away again. I looked over to Maria and Cat who had also pried themselves from each other's arms.

"Oh Jadelyn." Maria also pulled me into a hug while Leo walked away to the rest of the group of teens.

"You're Victoria correct?" I heard him say to Tori, I couldn't help but snicker at the use of her full name.

"Y..yes." Tori stuttered out.

* * *

Beck POV

"Come with me." He said, his voice was a definite harsh tone as he spoke to Tori.

"W..why?" Tori said, kinda of confused by the man, rightly so in all honesty I had no idea why he had the sudden need to walk over to her and talk to her like that.

"Excuse me," I cut in, "why do you-"

"You're Beck right?" He cut me off.

"Yes I am." I replied, politely but with a slight bit of toughness.

"You need to come too." He turned and started to walk back into the house. Tori and I exchanged a quick look of confusion as we followed him into the house, walking past Jade, Cat and Maria who were all in a very fast-talking Italian conversation. We walked though the front archway and though the door where we were greeted by a large open lounge area, I've never seen a room with so much furniture and so many hues I'd never choose, nor a room I love so much. In my house in LA there were just to clean lines, simple and mostly white; but these walls were all burnt orange and reds. The furniture was rustic and dark, sprinkled liberally with vibrant cushions. Along the walls are more photographs than paint. Every one is of a happy memory, a smiling child, a birthday, I see pictures of Cat, Jade and the a boy who I presume is Raffaele. It isn't just a house, it's a home.

"If you don't mind me asking Sir." I asked slowly. "But what do you want from us?"

"To talk." Leo said, motioning for us to sit on the large couch, Tori and I quickly complied and perched on the edge of it. "I want to see what you two are made of."

"Why us?" Tori stuttered out, "Why not Robbie or Andre?"

"Because Robbie and Andre aren't dating my daughters." _His- oh! He's giving us 'the talk'... ah!_ The collar of my shirt suddenly became very tight and I felt the need to adjust it as Cat's Dad looked directly at me. "Even though Jade may not biologically be mine- she is my daughter at heart and I feel the need to talk to you both the same way." He started, "Let's start with you Victoria."

Tori opened her mouth to correct him, but them quickly closed it again. "O..okay." She stuttered out.

"Maria and I have watched all of your interviews, and if what you said was true then I feel the need to first of all thank you." His expression softened as he talked to her. "What that man did to my Cat was despicable and I still can not even comprehend that it happened, but from what you and Cat described you had been with her from day 1 and promised to help her with the baby. So I thank you for being by my Baby's side when Maria and I couldn't. However, if you even dare think about leaving Cat or the baby and breaking their hearts, you will be out of his house faster than you could apologise, got it?"

"Yes Sir." Tori stuttered out, barely able to stop her shaking.

"Same with you Beck." He turned to look at me. "Firstly I will thank you for protecting both girls for the last few months, and for looking after Jade for the last few years. But know now that if you break her heart I will break your face."

"Papa." We heard Cat's voice from the hallway, I don't know how long she was stood there for, but she had a slight grin on her face signalling that she was slightly enjoying watching us squirm under her father's glare. "Don't be harsh on them please."

"I'm just making sure they understand to never hurt you or Jade." Leo replied to his daughter.

"Trust me, if they do then they'd have to go though me first," She chuckled, "and I'm pretty scrappy. Either way, I can smell food and I'm super hungry so I think they know the deal." Her Dad just chuckled slightly and then gave Tori and I a soft yet harsh smile and told us that he did in fact approve of both of us and that we should all go eat.

I'm not sure if it was because of worry, but I had only just noticed the wonderful smell of freshly cooked food that filled the house. The rich aroma of the dish wafted down and beckoned you. The others joined us from outside and Maria hurried us all into the kitchen, revealing a table with 6 different pizzas on it. These pizza's weren't those average ones that you'd order from a fast food place, these were hand made dough, cheese spread atop in copious amounts and the wide assortment of condiments sprinkled in the perfect amounts mingle to produce a taste unlike any other: salty,peppery,cheesy with a whiff of Italian cuisine. You could not resist the delightful sensations that whipped up inside your memory at the mere thought of delving your teeth deep and fast into the pulpy texture of the pizza.

"Hurry before they get cold." Maria side quickly, each of the 8 of us grabbed a slice of the freshly made treat and simultaneously took a bite. The base was the perfect combination of light inside and crunchy on the bottom, the toppings were fresh and fragrant, it was truly the best pizza slice I had ever eaten. Italian cooking really is the best.


	31. Chapter 31

Cat POV

There is nothing like a home cooked meal, especially one cooked by an Italian. My mother's cooking is the best I've ever tasted, maybe apart from my Nonna's, I hope that when I'm older I'll be as good as they are. When all the pizzas were eaten and my parent's had gotten to know my friends a little, they took us on a quick tour of the house. They'd somehow made it look exactly the same as our home back in LA, which makes sense because when they moved to Idaho they took everything with them. I left a mix of nostalgia and embarrassment as we walked by all of the photos of me, Raffa and Jade in our younger years. They were quickly swept away by the sense of pride from when my parents asked the others if they had any baby photos, saved on their twitters and such, that my parents could add to the walls. The others seemed slightly confused by this so my Mom replied but telling them "This house is now yours too and as friends of my daughters, you are welcome to stay for as long as you need. Our home is your home, and we want you too feel as if it were such." I felt so much pride in my family in that moment, and pure joy over how wonderful my parents are. "Now on with the tour." She continued, walking us all back to the front of the house and opened the door on the right of the front door.

"Excuse the paper piles." My dad said as the door opened. "This used to be my office and I'm still clearing it out."

"Office?" My Mom laughed. "It's just where you'd dump things. Anyway this is Robbie and Andre's room." The two boys walked into the room and simultaneous sat on the two makeshift single beds in the sea of papers. The room was a decent size with potential to be a great room with a bit of work. "There's a shower room in here." My Mom continued, opening the attached door for them.

Directly opposite the boy's room door there was another one, my Dad opened it to reveal another room of the same size with one queen sized bed in the middle and a wooden wardrobe with a similar connected bathroom. "This is Beck and Jade's room." He sighed. "Now Maria had to do a lot of convincing for me to let you two share a room, and this is a privilege not a right." He said sternly, looking mainly at Beck.

"I understand Sir." Beck said.

"You'd better Lad." He replied.

"Leonardo." My Mom warned him. "Stop."

My Dad nodded and walked back out of the room to continue the tour, he led us all back to the lounge and past the couch to two staircases in the far left corner, one going downstairs and one going up. He walked down the one going down, and we followed him. At the bottom was a door, which after opening revealed a basement. Most people think of basements as dingy places with low ceilings and mould, but this was a very large room, with a design very unlike the rest of the house. The walls were a pristine white and a wooden floor and grey white furniture. "We haven't really used this room much." My dad said. "It was for if people came over, and storage." He opened up the door of one of the attached rooms to reveal a room piled up with various discarded items making it impossible to take a step without worrying about knocking something over.

"We're planning on making this bigger room Cat and Tori's bedroom." My Mom said, making my jaw drop slightly.

"How'd they get a room double the size of ours?" Jade spoke up, slightly pissed off over how much bigger mine and Tori's room is.

"Because they need the room for a nursery." My mother replied quickly, my hand snapped to my stomach, something that had seemingly slipped from my mind since we arrived. "Which is what we'll turn the storage room into." She then moved along and opened the other door which lead from the main room to reveal a bathroom which had an earthy feel. The walls were large format tiles of white honed travertine and the floor was made of wooden plants. The vanities were of a dark wood and the counters were a brilliant white quartz. There was a decent sized bath and shower.

"This is amazing, thank you so much." Tori beamed, getting out the words which were stuck in my throat.

"It's what you all deserve kids, you've been though so much and you all needed a place to stay."

The rest of the tour took us up to the second floor of the house where my Mom and Dad's room, along with Raffaele's, then we went back down and into the garden where there was a decent sized pool. All of our faces lit up with joy over this, and we all wanted to jump in straight away, but my parents said we couldn't until we'd all gotten swimming costumes or trunks _S_ _poilsports._

After the tour was over, my parents sat us all down and talked to us, going into every detail about how if anyone ever needed anything, my parents would be there for them. They talked to me about the baby and how it would be, and they said that they were fully accepting over Tori and my relationship (which was something I was never worried about because they were very accepting people). They talked to each of us individually to get to know is more and then we spent the rest of the day helping to clear out the paper from Robbie and Andre's room, or taking the stuff from the nursery up into the attic. Until, at about 5:50, my brother returned from his work. Raffaele is one of the best people I know, and these last few months without him have been hellish.

As soon as his car pulled up onto the driveway, I ran out of the house and wrapped my arms tightly around him. At 21 years old, he's still quite boyish in looks, and that adds to his charm. He had all the height of a man but none of the bulk. There were muscles under his shirt, but not the bulky kind men can get from years of weight lifting. From behind he could be anywhere in his late teens to early thirties, but when he turned that face was all boy. He was lit up with that grin boys wear when they have something mischievous planned. His hair was a perfect mop of red, like mine used to be but his was slightly more orange in hue and looked like a lion's man on his head. "Oh Catty I missed you so much." He whispered to me as he lifted my up in his arms.

"I missed you too." I replied, my voice breaking into quiet sobs. "Ew gross you smell like petrol." I said after a few moments in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"That's what happens when you work with cars." He chuckled, continuing to hold me tight. "I dyed my hair like you did."

"It suits you." I smiled. "I had to take mine out, because of the baby."

"How is the little one doing?" He asked, placing me back down onto my feet.

"Putting a bit of strain on my back in all honest." I said, rubbing my back.

"I meant you, little one." He said cheekily, ruffling my hair.

"Oi!" I replied, unable to stop myself from cracking up at his height joke. "It's not my fault you got all the height genes."

"Welp, I'm glad I did 'cause I love being tall." He smiled, leading us back into the house. "Now let's meet these friends of yours."

"They're helping Mom and Dad clear stuff out." I explained.

"I'm sure they could spare a few minutes to talk to me." He said cheekily.

The introduction of my brother was a lot less stressful than I expected, they all thought he was a great guy and he explained a little bit about his disorder in case he ever accidentally freaked them out. It was such a relief that they all gave him a chance after what they'd heard about him, and a part of my hates myself for talking about him in such a way, but that's all in the past now and there's nothing I can do.


	32. Chapter 32

No POV

The next day was mostly spent shopping. Maria and Leo apologised for not having enough money to help the teens out too much, but they all quickly told them not to worry as they could use their $1000 to get things for themselves.

First of all they went to the local mall to buy themselves enough clothes to stock up their wardrobes. Luckily, all of the teens loved shopping, mainly because of the general vibe of the perfumed, air conditioned mall. They could pawn over different fabrics and textures, try on new boots and hats, and express themselves through the items they'd chosen. This shopping trip was the start of a new life for all of them, these clothes would define who they were and how they wanted to present themselves, because of this, they all had to chose their own distinct style.

Andre stuck with his original 80s vibe, leather jackets and bold, loose-fitting shirts; Jade continued with her dark coloured outfits, venturing into some blues and greens for some slight variety, but that was enough of a change for her. Cat exchanged her short dresses for some very over-sized hoodies and either trousers or thigh-high boots and shorts, this was to step away from her more childish style and to also have something that she could continue to comfortably wear as her baby bump grew. Beck, ever the fashionable one, wanted to change his style to keep up with the new fashion trends, buying a lot of jeans, simple t-shirts and seemingly every jacket imaginable. Jean jackets, bomber jackets, trench jackets, leather jackets, moto jackets. Fair to say he'd struggle to find something to wear in the summer months. Tori joined Beck in the attempt to step up her style, ditching her simple shirts and plain blue jeans in favour of some darker skin-tight trousers and a lot of cropped or tied shirts, jumpers and hoodies. Unable to ever really dress himself, Robbie stuck to what he knew, simple outfits what didn't bring much attention to himself. It might have been boring but it was how he liked it.

After spending a few hundred dollars each on their chosen clothes, and makeup for the girls, they went to an Ikea and other design stores to buy things for their rooms. Wandering around the large furniture store was really an experience in itself because of the teen's continuous joking around, making a mini competition over who could make the best pun with the funny sounding Swedish product names. They continued to make each other cringe with the ' _Besta_ puns ever' (a joke that they kept making when they went past the appropriate storage units) until all the furniture and paint was finally brought and transported back to the house with the help of a van from Raffael's work.

Next, Maria and Leo went through all of the important things that the teens needed to sort out, such as getting new bank accounts and organising school placements. Robbie was taken to the hospital to get a new asthma inhaler, and Tori had an opticians appointment to get some new reading glasses. All in all it was probably one of the most productive days of any of their lives, but it was well needed in order for them to start their new lives in Florida.

* * *

The next few days after that were spent cracking open the paint pots to decorate the rooms, Cat was really annoyed by this as, because she was pregnant, she had to wear a mouth cover so that she couldn't breathe in the paint fumes.

For Robbie and Andre's room, they had chosen a dark, almost black, grey to cover 3 of the walls of the room, with a slightly lighter grey on the 4th. Both of their beds were on opposite sides of the room with sheets the same colour as the accent wall with a single dark grey stripe down the middle of them. The dresser between their beds was a also a light grey, which had wooden draws that were the same tone as the oak floor. With the addition of a simple keyboard and guitar, both on their own stands, the room was perfect for the two young men, being clean cut and organised yet still dark and secluded for them.

For their room, Beck and Jade had chosen to paint the walls a crisp white with a navy blue accent wall, creating a compelling moody ambiance which contrasted well with the white. There was one queen-sized navy and white bed with a small set of 4 painting above the headboard; two white lamps sat either side of the bed on glass nightstands; and a simple white wardrobe beside the en-suite door along with a matching makeup dresser for Jade. The room looked very sophisticated for such a young couple, but nevertheless it suited them well.

Cat and Tori had decided to keep the original white colour of their basement room, just changing one of the walls to a light grey and white stripped wallpaper. Their bed had a grey headboard, white sheets and a matching grey ruffled throw over the foot of it. Like the boys, Cat and Tori had opted to place a piano-keyboard in their room, along with an white wardrobe and dresser set.

The nursery was to be left bare until the baby's gender was discovered, and they had enough money to properly deck it out, which brings us to the point of jobs. All of the teens realised that now they had a little amount of money to their name, and needed to get jobs to sort themselves out. This resulted in each of them finding a simple summer 9-5 job, ranging from being a Starbucks barista, to being a shelf stacker at a local store or assisting Raffa at his workshop. The jobs weren't much, but they'd make money and that's all they needed.


	33. Chapter 33

*I've already done two birthday themed chapters, so I'm skipping Cat's b-day, but it would have been in the time frame between the last chapter and this one.*

* * *

After a while of working every weekday, the teens had saved up enough to buy two small cars between them, they weren't much but they'd be able to take them all too and from school when term began again and that was all that mattered. Until then, it was still during the summer holidays so teens didn't have to go to school, however they did have a lot of work to do to catch up with the few months they'd missed. Along with their jobs, this meant that the teens barely had any time to themselves or to relax, making them completely forget about their new performing opportunities. This was until Mid-July when Andre, Tori, Robbie and Beck all got phone calls to go over to a studio about a half an hour drive away from the house.

A month later, July 23rd (Day 156)

No POV

At 8:15am, of all the teens (apart from Jade and Cat) were all sat around the table, each eating a different form of breakfast food to fuel them for the day ahead. "I'm so excited." Tori said, in an unusually happy mood for such an early start.

"I'm really nervous in all honest, I want to know why they're calling us all in." Robbie said.

"It's probably just a brief day, talking about our contracts and stuff." Beck replied calmly, taking a bite of his toast.

"I'm slightly annoyed that it's such an early start." Andre yawned.

"Speaking of which, if we want to get there for 9 o'clock then we should really speed up." Robbie said, shovelling a few spoonfuls of cereal into his mouth.

"Hey everyone." A 20 weeks pregnant Cat stumbled into the room, her brown locks in a bit of a tangle from only just getting out of bed.

"Hey Babe, good sleep?" Tori asked her girlfriend.

"Not bad." She said, walking through into the kitchen and turning on the coffee maker.

"Well seeings as you're already making yourself a coffee, I'm going to guess you're lying." Beck commented, taking a sip of his own coffee.

"Alright." Cat sighed. "I had bad indigestion all night and it was hard to sleep through it."

"Doesn't coffee make that worse?" Robbie spoke up, still with a mouthful of cereal.

"I'm not a doctor." Cat replied bluntly. "Speaking of which." She looked pointedly at Tori.

"I promise we'll be back before 5:30." Tori said calmly. "I won't miss the ultrasound appointment."

"You'd better not, or I'll hide the gender from you until they're born and even then I'd still try." Cat said in a very serious voice.

"I understand the consequences." Tori replied, trying to stop herself from laughing.

"Right, I've got to go say bye to Jade and wake her up for work." Beck announced, standing up and leaving the kitchen to go wake his sleeping girlfriend.

"Good luck." Andre called after him, laughing to himself.

"Oh God, I've gotta put up with her being grumpy after you've all gone." Cat sighed, putting a coffee cup into the machine.

* * *

Andre POV

We climbed into one of our cars and Beck drove us to the Heart of Miami where the agency building was. With the new found boom of the city, Miami was becoming big enough that it almost rivalled LA. New buildings and skyscraper were all over the place and nothing like the concrete towers that were thrown up in the 1980's that looked derelict almost as soon as the shovels were taken out of the ground. These were monuments to the modern age, acres of glass strung together with shiny steel. They reflected light as well as any mirror and so incredibly the streets seemed brighter, reminding me more an more of home. Yes my home, I'm extremely appreciative of everything the Valentines have done for me, and I understand that Florida is where I will live and grow as a human, but deep in my heart California will always be my home and I hope that one day I can safely return there.

As we got out of the car Robbie looked at the address on his phone to check that this monstrosity of a skyscraper was the correct place. We were about to walk inside when suddenly camera lights started to flash around us and these two men in black suits moved us out of the way to make room for a mystery person. This person was clearly important as the cameras were hypnotised by them, shooting their every step as they walked from their car and into the building before us.

"Who was that?" Tori asked once the person had gone inside and the camera had stopped flashing.

"I dunno, I couldn't see their face." Beck said. "But whoever they were, they seemed pretty famous to me."

"That's not surprising, this is a building of performing label, there's bound to be some well known people inside." I added. "Come on, let's go inside."

We were practically walking through the doors when one of the camera men worked out who we were. However, we didn't want to get trapped outside by them so we just kept walking until we passed though the large glass revolving door. The entrance room was a decently big size, and new. Very new. It looked like it had been finished last week. It looked almost too new in some strange way. It was as if it had rolled off a production line, but they had forgotten to apply the mandatory layer of colour to it. Every surface was white, glossy plastic that iced over the windows, granite enforced the floors to shiny and clean, uninspired monotony. There wasn't a single square meter of organic material in sight. Not even a comforting wallpaper that imitated warmth in some way. However, it did look very clean-up and professional, so it's good to know we haven't all just been scammed into some fake business.

The four of us walked up to the large receptionist desk from the front entrance and told the man who we were, he told us that the building was split into difference sections for different professions, so Tori and I would be going to a different floor then Robbie and Beck. We said our farewells and departed once we reached our respective floors, going the rest of our way in our pairs.

"This is the room I think." Tori said awkwardly, knocking on the labelled wooden office door. A few moments later a man opened it. He had the kind of face that stopped you in your tracks. I guess he must get used to that, the sudden pause in a person's natural expression when they looked his way followed by overcompensating with a nonchalant gaze and a weak smile. I had to kick Tori's leg to snap her out of her slight trance, making her quickly introduce herself. "Um, hi." She stuttered, I could tell she was mentally reminding herself that she was already in a relationship. "I'm Tori Vega and this is Andre-"

"Ah yes, I was expecting you two." The man said with a slight smile, his voice had the distinct tone of a British accent, making Tori blush suddenly and I couldn't help but chuckle at her. "Come in, come in." He opened the door for us and held it until we'd walked in fully and then shut it behind us.

"Cat will kill you if she hears about this." I whisper to her.

"About what?" Tori replied, fauxing innocence. All I had to do was jokingly raise an eyebrow at her. "What? I'm bi, I can still appreciate a good-looking man." She whispered back, making me chuckle again.

"I'm Jason Lancaster." He introduced himself, shaking both mine and Tori's hands in turn before sitting behind in a chair behind the black glass surface of his desk. I looked around at the spotless large office space before turning my attention back to the desk to see it was equally uncluttered only occupying: a computer, a leather notebook, and a framed photograph of a girl of a similar age to him, presumably his girlfriend or fiance. "And welcome to the World of the Arts Agency." _So that's what this place is called._ "I understand that the both of you want to peruse careers in singing." Tori and I both nodded. "Well that's good because that's what I specialise in here."

Jason continued to talk to us for a good few hours, explaining how he would be our personal agent to support us in our careers and work with us to reach our goals. Tori and I both replied to this stating that we wanted to release our own songs and hopefully have out own albums made before we left school. Jason seemed like a pretty smart guy, telling us about how we could work with him to accomplish it and how it wasn't only about writing the songs but also building ourselves a large following. This was to insure the albums would get sales once it was released, meaning Tori and I had to be very active on social media and possibly releasing demos onto Youtube and such. We would spend at least a lot of time in the building to work on our singing, songwriting and everything else to go with it, meaning there was a high chance we would be taking a lot of time off of school. It was a hard decision, as we were already half a year behind our peers, but for our dreams to come true it was what we needed to do.

After the talk, we were given an detailed tour of the building and shown it's inner workings: such as where the recording studios were, the planning rooms, the practice rooms and who to go to when we had a problem. The whole building was organised to flow perfectly within itself, keeping each department connected to increase productivity. The whole day was about as hectic as the building itself, only allowing for us to have a short break at lunch to go and get something to eat.

Once we were finally released for he day, we walked back to the car where Robbie and Beck were sat inside. "Took you long enough." Beck commented as we climbed into the back. "We've been here an hour, and getting many stressful calls from Cat."

"What'd you- OH SHIT!" Tori yelled, grabbing her phone from her back pocket to check the time. "Oh thank God it's only 4:45." The look of relief on her face was priceless.

"We wouldn't have let you miss that appointment Tor'." Robbie laughed.

"Cat wouldn't have let us let you." Beck corrected, starting the car engine. "Let's just hope there isn't any traffic so we can make it back there in time before she rips your head off."

* * *

Cat POV

"Where are they?!" I yelled, sat by the window of Beck and Jade's bedroom, still in my work uniform after just getting back from my shift, looking longingly at the driveway.

"It's only 5:15." Jade said, sighing slightly at my impatience. "If they aren't here by 5:25 then I'll drive you to the appointment myself."

"It's a 10 minute drive though!" I said to her. "I'll be late if we leave then! I need to go now!"

"You seriously want to leave without Vega?" Jade an eyebrow at me. "She's been as excited as you are over this gender reveal."

"She should have got here earlier-" The sound of screeching car tired snapped me out of my thoughts as I saw Beck pull up onto the drive. "They're here!" I announced, running out of the house.

"We made it." Tori said happily as I ran out to the car.

"Just about." I snapped, Beck tossed me the keys as he got out of the car and I climbed into the drivers seat with Tori climbing into the passenger seat.

"I'm sorry." She said quickly, putting on her seat-belt as I adjusted the divers seat so it was closer to the wheel.

"I can't be mad at you when I'm this excited." I squealed, turning on the car engine and reversing out of the driveway.

"Watch out!" She squealed as something caught her eye on the road.

"You're such a nervous passenger." I shook my head as I continued to drive. "This is why you failed your drivers test."

"I still don't remember you ever passing yours." She said, trying to recall the memory.

"I passed in summer between 10th and 11th Grades." I replied as I continued to drive. "Back when I had just turned 16, not 17 and a half like you are now." I joked.

"Shut it." She crossed her arms over her chest in a child-like pouted manner. After a brief pause she continued to talk again. "Am I really 17 and a half?"

"Well, it's only 17 and 2 months." I said, stopping the car at a red light. "Still older than me though."

"Barely."

"And still, I'm going to be a Mom in about 4 months." I sighed, don't get me wrong I'm so excited to become a Mom... but I'm so, so scared.

"In some respect, I am too." Tori spoke up.

"D... do you want to be called 'Mom' by the baby?" I whispered.

"It's your choice Babe." She replied in an equally quiet tone, the two of us discussing it for the first time. "But... I know I keep saying this, but I want to be a part of the babies life and-"

"I want you to be their Mom too." I replied, unable to stop myself from smiling having to remind myself to drive as the light turned green.

"Thank you." She replied quietly.

"I think I'm going to be called 'Mamma'." I spoke up, my accent changing to Italian on the pronunciation. "It's what I call my Mom, and it will stop confusion between the two of us."

"See, you're thinking this all though so well."

"I've had a lot of time to."

* * *

After arriving in the Maternity ward, we were informed by the receptionist that the appointments were running late and we would have to wait a while. Tori and I let out a sigh of relief, now knowing we hadn't missed our appointment, and sat in two of the grey waiting room chairs.

As I stared at the blank white wall in front of me and tried to settle my mind. Until then I'd been nothing but excited for this day and being able to see my baby again, but now I felt every form of tension and anxiety build up in me as I stared blankly, my mind full of every single thing that could go wrong. The 20 week appointment could reveal much more than my first one, something could be wrong with my baby. Before the panic could eat me alive, I managed to catch up on subtle breathing exercises to help me relax. Just as I regained my steady heart beat by breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, I could hear the continual tap of a heel against the floor and my pulse rate shot up once again, upon realising what was nearing. While I desperately tried to regain my normal state, I saw a woman peering at me and tapping her clipboard simultaneously. I stood up almost too quick, sending a sharp searing pain along my back as I painfully jerked my knee on the table in front of me while getting up. Though the words that came out from her flawlessly outlined lips were inaudible amidst the tense atmosphere. As the lady turned to walk away, Tori noticed my anxiety and held my hand in hers, helping me to stay calm and follow them down a hallway. We approached a slightly open door of a room from which white light was pouring out through the crack, I found myself biting hard on my bottom lip, filling my mouth with the metallic taste of blood.

"Lay down on here Caterina." The lady said, motioning to the paper-covered hospital bed.

"Call me Cat please." I replied nervously, laying down as he had instructed while Tori introduced herself.

"How have you been feeling Cat?" She asked, pulling my details up on a computer on a desk.

"A little sore." I said, my heart rate decreasing slowly. "And the morning sickness is very touch and go."

"Okay." She typed what I said into a small notes section of the computer. "Any shortness of breath?"

"Not really," I replied, "but I have had some bad indigestion."

The appointment continued like this for a few minutes, the doctor asked a few more questions an wrote down my responses. After this, she told me to raise my shirt and she put the cold gel onto my stomach and then the probe. Every anxious feeling came rushing back to me as the lady moved it around to look for the baby's heartbeat.

I just want the baby to be healthy, please. Just be healthy.

* * *

No POV, back in the Valentine household

"When the hell are they coming back?!" Jade yelled, pacing back and forth in the living room where the rest of the teens and the Valentine family were sat.

"Jadelyn, attento a come parli ( _Jade,_ _watch your mouth)_." Maria said quickly, making Jade sigh and roll her eyes.

"Where the hell are they?" Leo yelled, walking into the room. His perfect timing making the teens laugh.

"Leonardo, attento a come parli." Raffael said in between laughs.

"What?" Leo said, missing what previously happened.

"Heyyyy guys!" Cat's voice echoed around the house and her and Tori walked in though the front door. Everyone jumped to their feet as the two girls walked into the room. "Ooh I feel so loved." Cat giggled.

"So everything's okay then? Robbie asked, eagerly bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.

"All healthy." Tori spoke up, a large smile on her face.

"Grazie a dio ( _Thank God.)_ " Maria announced, rushing towards the girls and pulling them both into a tight hug.

"And the gender?" Jade asked.

"In here." Cat held out a brow A4 envelope after her Mom released her from the hug. "All the information is in there but we wanted to wait until we were home to open it."

"I'm praying it's a boy," Raffael spoke up, "just so we can prove Mam,a's ring on a string thing wrong. **(** **A/N just Google '** **Italian ultrasound ring' to know what I mean.)** "

"It predicted you and Cat correctly." Maria defended.

"Come on and open it already." Andre spoke up.

"I'm too nervous." Cat said, shoving the envelope into Tori's hands.

The rest of the occupants of the room looked longingly at Tori as she took the envelope and shakily ripped the top seem. She lifted the paper out of the brown packaging and scanned her eyes across the small black text until her eyes rested on the answer to all their questions.

"Tell us already!" Jade yelled impatiently.

"A boy." Tori said, a small smile forming on her face. "It's a boy."

"AHA!" Raffael pumped his fist into the air. "I was right!"

"A boy?" Cat repeated, every possible form of boy flooding though her body.

"Yep." Tori beamed, showing the papers to her girlfriend. The next thing she knew, Cat had slammed her lips into Tori's, nearly knocking all wind from her lungs. Tori hardly had a moment to react before Cat pulled away again and wrapped her arms around Tori's body, resting her head in the crook of Tori's neck.

"A boy." Cat whispered. "Our little boy."

"Our little boy." Tori repeated, looking deep into her girlfriend's chocolate brown eyes.


	34. Chapter 34

Tori POV, a few weeks later. (August 18th/ Day 176) 

I swear to God, I haven't had a break in weeks. Basically every other day, Andre and I have been in the World of the Arts Agency, doing everything from: singing lessons, to song writing, to meeting new people, to recording, to sampling music, to making demos, to photo shoots, to meetings to... just SO MUCH STUFF. Robbie and Beck have been coming with us once every other week to have meeting to update them about their acting careers, normally getting told about any auditions via the phone. Robbie so far had only had some auditions for TV adverts and unfortunately hasn't actually landed any, but Beck's just managed to land the lead in a new upcoming movie. We're all super happy for him, but it's not great that he's barely at home anymore because of the busy filming schedule.

School starts tomorrow, and we're all extremely nervous of it. It's a new school in a town in a new state, where we'll be a whole year behind our peers, and all the classes are back to what I'm used to from before Hollywood Arts. No 'Improv' class, no 'Modeling', no 'Theatrical Makeup' just more general stuff like 'Drama', 'History', 'Geography' and 'Music'. We all found it hard to chose subjects that we could transfer our knowledge from, but we all managed to find enough to keep us going for the year.

Right now it's midnight and I'm sat alone in the baby's nursery just looking around at it in the dark while my mind buzzes with anxiety over tomorrow. This room always calms me and I love how this has been put together (we decorated it last week on one of my days off). The light grey walls matched the colour of the striped accent wall in Cat and my room, and the white furniture did also. Everything is ready and set up for the baby's arrival in a few months, from the rocking chair by the crib to the filled diaper bag hug beside the changing station. I'm currently staring into the crib, to the neatly folded sheets, and just thinking. This is not how I pictured my future to be, I mean I've know for a while that I was bisexual and could end up with woman, but in any relationship I imagined I always thought I'd be the one to carry the child. So this feeling is not one that I'd prepared for, looking into a crib waiting for a child that wasn't inside of me. It's weird though, that even though this child won't biologically be mine, I can't stress how much I already love him and how he _is_ my son. Our son. Mine and Cat's.

"Tori?" Cat's tired voice call out from our room, standing up quickly I walked back into our room.

"I'm was just in the nursery." I replied, sitting on the end of the bed opposite to where she sat upright by the head bored. "You okay?"

"Sorry, I was just worried you were -oof." She cringed, her hand shooting to her stomach as her body rocked forward.

"What's wrong?" I asked, my voice changing from calm to panic.

"That hurts." She said though clenched teeth, rubbing her hands over her baby bump.

"What does?" I said, still with a sense of worry in my voice.

"Feel it." She replied.

I shuffled closer to her on the bed and placed my hands on either side of her bump. "That's rock solid." I gasped.

"Uh-aahh!" Cat cringed, I felt the bump somehow get even tighter under my touch before releasing again.

"T..that contracted." I stuttered out. "It contracted... like a contraction."

"I know!" Cat snapped. "I felt it more than you did."

I ignored her snapping, more focused on the baby. "You're too early to be in labour." I stuttered out.

"It's just Braxton Hicks." She said quietly, I felt the tightness of the bump release under my hands. "It's okay, I'm used to this."

"Braxton Hicks?" I said quickly, the term unfamiliar to me. "What are they? Are they normal? Is he okay?"

"You'd know what it meant if you read all the baby books." She grumbled.

"I did!" I said back quickly.

"You read the 1st page!" She snapped.

"I read more than that! I've been busy alright!" I yelled back, suddenly loosing my cool.

"You don't care about any of this do you?" She growled at me. I know me being away has really taken a toll on her too, and I hate it. I want to be there for everything with her, but I just can't.

"What the- Cat of course I care about you." I replied quickly. "You and the baby."

"No you don't." She snapped, jumping.

I wanted to cry as rage filled my belly. I felt my ears getting hot. I glare at her then spat out "HOW DARE YOU?"

Our heated quarrel continues. It was definitely a war of words and who can hurt the other one worse. Both of us at each other's throats like savage hungry dogs fighting over dominance. In the moment Cat's mood swings were mixing with my emotional weakness due to stress and lack of sleep.

"THATS IT!" Cat screamed, jumping out of the bed and rushing to the wardrobe.

"What are you doing?" I said back, watching her grab one of her hoodies and sliding it over her pyjama shirt and short-shorts.

"Leaving!" She screamed, running out of the door and up the stairs to the house's first floor.

"Cat no!" I yelled, running after her. I'd gone too far, I should have known better than to fuel her mood swings but she just hurt me but what she said and I couldn't help it. "Cat stop." I yelled again as I saw her put on a pair of shoes and grab one of the sets of car keys from the tray.

"No." She growled. "Stop following me!" She rushed out of the front door and shut it in my face.

I looked down at my rough attire, pyjamas and bare feet, and decided to pull on a pair of my own shoes before following her out of the house, however once I'd made it onto the driveway , she'd already put the car into drive and pulled off of the driveway. Never in my life have I wished I could drive more than in that moment. I turned to go back into the house to wake one of the others to drive after her, but the door was shut. I had two choices. 1) sit on the doorstep and wait until she came back or 2) Run after her.

I did what I thought I should and took of sprinting down the road, following Cat's car... No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't keep up with her as she continued down the road.

* * *

Cat POV

I could feel the tears streaming down my face as I drove away, blurring my vision to the point where driving wasn't safe anymore. It didn't matter though 'cause I needed to get away from her. I can't believe her, I can't believe she would... actually I'm not sure what she did, but it upset me and I just need to get away.

"Oh shit." I muttered to myself as I realised I'd just driven through a red-light. Nothing was coming the other way so I'm lucky but I really need to look where I'm going. I can't though, there's too many tears blocking my vision. No matter how many times I tried to blink away the tears, they just wouldn't budge so I pulled the car over to the side of the road. As I turned off the engine, I rested my head against the steering wheel, letting the tears take over. "What have I done?" I sobbed to no one. It wasn't Tori's fault we fought, it was mine and these stupid mood-swings. It's not her fault she'd been busy, and I know she'd read the books, just the bit about Braxton Hicks was near the end and she hadn't had the time to get that far.

I continued to sob to myself for a few minutes before I looked outside of the car window and into the a vast expanse of jet-black that engulfed the town. A canopy of luminous stars materialised amongst the ocean of blackness. Some were dull, merely flickering into existence every now and then, but there was an adequate amount of shimmering stars to illuminate the dark, moonless night. Normally I hate the night, the mystery behind the darkness and the vulnerability it causes, but I just needed to walk to clear my mind. I climbed out of the car and locked it behind me, walking into the play-park beside where I'd stopped the car. There was no joy in this park, laughter of the children had died along with the light of the day. In darkness the black grass is left to recover from the happy frenetic footfalls, soccer balls and picnics. The trees sway, at first visible against a pale grey sky, then hidden by blackest night. Leaves scurry along the path and the breeze becomes more keen, raising goosebumps on my arms. I pulled my hoodie over myself more as I walked into the park, the squeaking of the gate startling me slightly. I walked past all of the play equipment and sat down on one of the swings.

I mentally tried to recall my drive here, telling myself that I must be about a 15 minute walk from my house. "This is probably where I'll take you when you're old enough." I whispered to my baby, tears starting to streak down my cheeks. "The baby book says you can hear me now." I continued. "I'm sorry you had to hear me and your Mommy fight. Oh God, maybe she doesn't even want to be your Mommy anymore." Another sob escaped my lips. "It's all my fault, I saw this coming and I did nothing. Actually I didn't do nothing, I fuelled my anger at her by making it worse, like writing songs about it. I was getting so mad at her for not being here, but it's not her fault." I sighed as I swung back and forth lightly on the swing. "Well, I guess if there's a time to sing one of those songs, then it's now."

 **(Song;** **Almost Is Never Enough - (Originally by Ariana Grande, but in this story just pretend Cat wrote it.)**

 _"I'd like to say we gave it a try_  
 _I'd like to blame it all on life_  
 _Maybe we just weren't right,_  
 _But that's a lie, that's a lie_

 _And we can deny it as much as we want_  
 _But in time our feelings will show_

 _'Cause sooner or later_  
 _We'll wonder why we gave up_  
 _The truth is everyone knows_

 _Almost, almost is never enough_  
 _So close to being in love."_

I mumbled a few incoherent words for the next section, not yet having words to fit in there.

 _"... maybe we wouldn't be two worlds apart_  
 _But right here in each others arms_

 _Here we almost, we almost knew what love was_  
 _But almost is never enough._

 _If I could change the world overnight_  
 _There'd be no such thing as goodbye_  
 _You'll be standing right where you were_  
 _And we'd get the chance we deserve oh."_

* * *

Tori POV

Tears blind me and I went, running as quickly as my legs can carry me, bolting down the path like an Olympic champion. The pounding noise of my shoes resonating off the floor with a clanging echo that matched my heart throbbing inside my chest with the thick grief I felt as I ran. I've never ran this fast for this long in my life, I'm not keeping track but I have to have been running like this for at least 5 minutes. I can feel myself wheeze as my burning lungs gasp for air. My legs feel numb and unsteady, painfully sore. My throat feels dry, so uncomfortably dry. My clothes and hair are clinging to my form, no different to if I'd just run through a rain-storm. Unable to go on, I stopped running gasping for air that just won't go in, like my lungs are surrounded by metal bands. Next came the rising panic, the dizzy feeling and the need to get low to the ground. I felt my knees buckle underneath me as I fell to the ground, my hands barely catching me, stopping my face from slamming into the pavement.

Slowly, I started to regain my breath. In, out. In, out. That was it. In, out. In, out. I stayed like that for a while until I could eventually find my way back to my feet. There was no way I could keep running, so I started to just stumble forward in a hopeless attempt to find Cat. The moon guided me through the night. Her calming presence makes me slowly close my eyes, my body quietly switching off; but she let my soul run free. I mentally run through everything from the past hour, every word and every detail. I'm sorry for what I did, and I hope Cat can see that. I wish Cat would see that. I continued to stumble forward down the path, crossing the road to take me forward, ever forward. One foot forward, the second after, then back to the first, then the second again. Just keep walking.

And so I did, until I could hear the faint sound of a voice beside me. I looked up and could see the dark silhouette of a park, with the frame of a person slumped on a swing. Their voice was quietly echoing around me, the song was unfamiliar to me, but the voice was as recognisable as my own. I stood their in silence, listening to the lyrics to try and recall the song. I couldn't so it must have been one of her own, Jade had been telling me that Cat was writing some pretty sad stuff recently. "Cat." I spoke up.

"T...Tori?" She replied, looking up at me. "Oh Tori I'm so sorry." She sobbed, jumping up from the swing and running into my arms. "H...how did you find me?"

"I ran." I replied, wrapping my arms around her frame.

"All that way?" She gasped. "Oh my god Tori." She sobbed.

"It's okay." I said, trying to hold back my own tears. "We're okay."

"It's not okay." She cried. "It's all my fault. I almost broke us up."

"Almost is never enough." I repeated her song lyrics back to her.

"You heard that?" She whispered.

"Every word." I replied. "And it was beautiful, like you are."

"I love you."

"I love you too."


	35. Chapter 35

Tori POV

The next morning was awkward to say the least. Apparently our yelling had awoken everyone, so we had to explain what'd happened at the breakfast table. Luckily for us, we didn't have to go into too much detail as two minutes into it, we all realised we were running late for school.

Taking the two cars between us, Beck and Jade drove us the all to our new school, Miami High. The name was about as creative as the school itself, just a large a building of plain geometric brick shapes. We found two parking spaces next to each other in the parking-lot and all climbed out of the cars, nerves fueling our systems. "This place is a lot bigger than Hollywood Arts." Beck observed. I feel bad for him, today was the first day off of filming he's had in weeks, and he's having to go back to school.

"I just realised that I'm the only one who's been to a normal High school before." I spoke up, remembering my Freshman year at Sherwood.

"It can't be that bad." Robbie said optimistically, pulling up his backpack in a very nerdy way.

"Let's just go." Jade commanded, locking the car and leading us all down the car park and up the steps of the school enhance way.

The hallway inside must have been designed my a manic depressive, either that or someone obsessed with grey. The teachers had done their bit, hanging posters in primary colours, yet the overall impression was of drabness. We could barely walk down it without being pushed and nudged by people, I saw Cat wrap her hands protectively around her midsection in an attempt to protect her baby bump from anyone else's uncoordinated actions. The chaos of the hallway was so stereotypical, like a movie. There was the couple making out on the left side of the hall, and about ten feet farther down, the cliquey girls. Opposite them, the jocks, and between them, the parade of band geeks with their huge instrument cases. And then there was us, not fitting into any group and just trying to make our way to our homeroom. Nobody seemed to care that we were unfamiliar. Nobody seemed to care that we were unusual. Nobody seemed to even notice us. I had to take a glance down to make sure I was still there; that I hadn't turned invisible. Nope -still there.

We'd finally made it far enough down the hallway into a clearing where there weren't many people. Robbie slung him backpack off of his shoulder and pulled out a map, determined to find the way to the room we were looking for. "That's convenient." He said, looking up from his map and directly in front of him to a door. "This is it."

"How long until homeroom starts?" Cat asked from beside me.

"2 minutes." Andre said, looking at his watch.

"Let's go in now then, before we can pushed around again." Robbie spoke up, opening the homeroom door for us. We were really lucky to all get into the same homeroom class and I'm not quiet sure how it worked out like that but I'm definitely not complaining. We walked in the empty classroom and looked around, it just looked like a normal classroom and nothing like the ones from HA. The tables were arranged to seat 4-6 people on each and there was minimal decoration around the room, similarity to the dull grey hallway outside.

I saw Jade look over to the teacher's desk and then chose the 6 seater table furthest away from it. She sat down in the chair closest to the corner and pulled Beck down into the seat beside her, Robbie and Andre sat on her other side leaving the two remaining seats for Cat and I. As soon as our butts hit the seats and our bags were put under the table, the bell ran and the other students started to walk in, talking amongst themselves and not really noticing us. None of us minded though, as it gave us time to study our new classmates, getting a quick idea of who they were.

The different cliques and groups were clear in this classroom, from the table of nerds sat at the very front with their pencils and books already set out (did they not know you don't do work in homeroom?), to the table of talkative girls on the table beside us, periodically giving us looks and giggling to themselves. "Is it just me feeling a little self conscious here?" Cat whispered to the table, slumping further into her over-sized hoodie.

"There's no need for you to feel self conscious." I said, draping my arm over her shoulder. Last night did hit us hard, but we managed to very quickly bounce back and got straight back to our previous point in our relationship.

"Want me to yell at them to stop?" Jade spoke up.

"No." Cat shook her head. "Best to not make any enemies on our first day."

The classroom door opened again and I expected it to be the homeroom teacher, but without turning around I knew I was wrong. Even given just a script of their conversation, with no context or voices, you would know it was group of teenage boys. The dialogue in question consisted only by jokes, often at the expense of one of their friends. Yet from the responses that that followed it was clear that no offence had been taken, quite the contrary. They enjoyed the banter, the witty and not-so-witty put-downs. They teased and jibbed one moment and discussed team strategy the next until they walked up to our table and finally noticed us. "Hey, Dudes." One of the boys spoke up, he had slick silky brown hair and a 6ft build, he seemed pretty well built but not overly muscular. "You all seem new here, but you're on our table."

"And?" Jade replied bluntly, looking directly at him.

"You need to all move." Another boy finished. He was slightly shorter than the first, maybe 5ft10, with more sandy-blonde wavy hair. Despite his smaller frame his muscles still made him quite intimidating.

"Says who?" Jade snapped.

"Look girly." The first boy said again. "This is our table and you and your friends need to move."

"Don't patronise my girlfriend like that." Beck defended. "Look there's another table over there," he pointed to the empty table beside the 'nerdy table'. "just sit there okay."

"This is our table." A third guy yelled. His temper was as short as the sides of his blonde hair, which faded out to a longer flopped forward style on the top. His outburst had made the rest of the class had suddenly gone silent and looked over at us. "Move!"

"Why should we?!" Jade yelled back, slamming her hand into the table aggressively.

"Yo Dude just leave it, we'll get them back later." A fourth boy spoke up. He seemed a lot more down to earth than the others, dressed in a lot less designer clothing with neat gelled back brown hair.

"Why would we back down from this?" The first boy said to him.

"Because those are the apocalypse kids." The fourth replied.

Somehow the room managed to be even more silent than before, and it hung in the air like the suspended moment before a falling glass shatters on the ground. Every person in the class was looked at us with a mix of awe and realisation as their brains processed the new information. But before anyone could talk, the teacher walked into the room. He had the look of one who had grown too fast in his youth, his bulk never catching up to his bones. He had to duck on entering the room. "In your seats boys." He said in a stern but kind tone, using hand expressions to move the boys alone the classroom and to the table at the front of the room.

Even though it was just Homeroom and there wasn't really just learning, I could tell he was one teacher the kids could never get the better of. Whatever witty retort anyone had, he had one better. He took their disobedience and turned into an advantage for himself, but not through belittling them or stamping authority. He checked their behaviour with a style of humour they could relate to, aspire to even. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy and I was glad he was our Homeroom teacher.

We found out the names of the four boys. Owen, Callum, Freddie and Mitchell (which is the order they were described in). Owen was the leader of the group, being the one that first told us to move and yelled at Jade, with Callum and Freddie just following his command. Mitchell was the more quiet and observant of the group, barley joining in with the other's banter. I'm kinda unsure why he hangs around with them, but it's only been one class so I guess I'll find out at some point. Apparently they're all on various sports teams, Owen's a street-dancer winning competitions state-wide, Callum's apparently the best soccer player long distance runner in the history of the school, Freddie is the basketball captain and Mitchell's on the football team. Overall I've discovered that they're a pretty douchey bunch and are pretty popular in the school... so maybe crossing them like we did wasn't the best idea.

* * *

Cat POV

I swear to God if I hear one person talking about me behind my back, I will actually scream. I'm currently in my last class before lunch and I really can't wait any longer, my stomach keeps rumbling so loud and the baby is kicking like mad. Finally, the lunch bell rang and I was freed from the history class I was unable to understand. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and picked up my map, determined to find the cafeteria without help.

Compared to HA, the hallways seemed busier, the students seemed less friendly and the teachers didn't seem to care that I didn't know my way around. Big football players raced past me in an effort to get their lunch first and cliques of cheerleaders clotted the stairs. As I walked into the lunchroom alone, looking desperately for the rest of my friends or an empty table to sit and wait for them, when someone tapped my shoulder. I looked up at them and registered that it was Freddie, one of the guys from my Homeroom. "Hi." He said, running his hand though his light blonde hair.

"Um... hi." I replied awkwardly. "You're Freddie right?"

"Yep, are you're Cat." He flashed a smile. "You're really pretty."

"Thanks." I blushed. "You do know I'm in a relationship right?"

"Oh I know." He said. "I could turn you back though."

"T...turn me back?" I frowned, a confused look etched on my face.

"Ya know, back to guys." He winked.

"I'm happy with Tori thanks." I said calmly, not wanting to make a scene in the middle of the lunch hall.

"Come on." He said, placing his hand onto my shoulder, it took everything in me to not flinch. "You must have been with a guy to get pregnant, you've gotta be Bisexual or something."

I felt my muscles clench and my mind fill with anger, I've never wanted to physically punch someone so much in my life until that moment. There was just so many things wrong with what he said. Quickly, I removed his hand from my shoulder and turned away from him, walking further into the lunch hall. "Cat!" I heard Beck's voice call out to me over the sound of the general buzz of the cafeteria. I looked around for him and saw that he, Jade and Andre were sat on a table the far corner together of the hall. I walked straight over to them and sat beside Jade.

"What's up Cat?" Andre asked as I slumped down onto the table.

"I want to go back to HA." I sighed.

"Me too but it's kinda invaded by zombies." Jade said bluntly, stabbing her salad with a fork.

"Bad day?" I asked her, my own emotions regulating again.

"In my last class I got put next to one of those douche's from Homeroom." She growled.

"They're gonna be a big problem this year." Beck sighed.


	36. Chapter 36

Robbie POV (a week later)

Ever since starting Hollywood Arts, I've always been a bit jealous of Beck. He's got it all, the good looks, great acting skills, he could get any girl he wanted and any acting job in the industry. Which is exactly what's happened here, he's got a part in a movie and I'm stuck going to crappy auditions for commercials that I never even get. Which is why this weekend I called the agency and told them I don't want a part in it anymore. It was a tough choice but I've decided acting isn't my thing and I'm going to go back pursuing theatre tech.

Today only Cat, Jade and I are going to school (Tori and Andre have been called to the agency and Beck's away filming). This isn't really that rare for us in all honesty, we've only been at school 2 weeks and there's only been 4 days where all 6 of us have stayed there the whole day. Being away from their partners is really taking a hit on Cat and Jade but they've been having to put up with it.

The three of us are currently sat in Homeroom, at the front may I add, listening to one of our classmates drone on about what they did this weekend. I heard some slight commotion behind us and turned around to see paper airplanes were being manufactured with great precision at one end of the classroom (I'll let you guess who by) and flown to the other end, hitting several annoyed classmates on the way and earning a good amount of foul-mouthed words in return. Our regular homeroom teacher was off today, so instead we've been stuck with a supply teacher who really couldn't care less about what was happening in their classroom, she's just sat at the desk scrolling though her phone. "Uh yes sounds great." She told the girl stood talking about her weekend, unintentionally cutting her off mid-speech. "Anyone else?" She looked up from her phone as Callum released another paper-plane which flew across the room into another kid's head. We all turned to the teacher and expected her to yell at him or something, but she merely rolled her eyes and went back to scrolling on her phone. The 4 guys at the back of the room laughed and highfived each other as the bell rung, signalling the end of Homeroom.

After getting up and walking out of the classroom, Jade, Cat and I said our farewells and started heading off to our different classes. "You Bobby!" I heard Owen call from behind me, presuming they were talking to one of their jock friends, so I continued walking forward. "Afro!" I heard him call again, this time I turned my head back.

"He turned." Freddie, who was beside him, laughed.

"Afro wait up." Owen called out, jogging up to me. "We were calling you, Bobby."

"It's Robbie." I corrected them, confused why they were talking to me.

"Well, now it's 'Afro'." Freddie spoke up, annoyingly ruffling my hair.

"What'd you want?" I said lowly, trying to walk away from them.

"You know those girls you hang out with." Owen started.

"Cat, Tori and Jade?" I replied. "What about them?"

"We don't care about Jade." Owen continued. "Beck seems cool, we ain't trying to tread on his territory."

"Just Cat and Tori." Freddie said. "So they're, like, together?"

"Yeah... and?" I asked

"How together?"

"Dating." I replied bluntly, not sure what they were getting at.

"And they're both full lez?" Freddie said, using the disparaging term so nonchalant.

"No." I lowered my voice slightly. "Tori's bi and Cat's pan."

"Pan? What she attracted to kitchen stuff." Owen joked.

"It- oh never mind." I sighed, shaking my head at their stupidity. "So what do you two want anyway?"

"That was it, thanks." Freddie said, pushing me to the side and continuing to walk past me, talking to each other quietly.

"Weird." I mumbled to myself.

* * *

After a few lessons, lunch finally came around. Lunch has very quickly become my favourite hour of the day, my lessons either being super easy (as in HA we'd been learning some of the topics years ago) or near impossible (because of the year I'd missed out). As soon as the bell rang, I headed out of class and down the hall to the cafeteria. The cafeteria was really the school gym. A hatch connecting it to the kitchen was opened and the smell of chips and baked beans came wafting in. I lined up across the back-wall with brown formica trays in my back leaning on the wall as I shuffled along until I was given my food. The lunches weren't much to look at but the desserts were great! Long doughnuts filled with cream, yum! Then I sat around one of the octagonal tables and started to dig in.

"ROBBIE SHAPIRO!" I heard my name echo around the hall, I snapped my head around to the source of the noise, expecting to see Jade on one of her usual rants with Cat running behind her to try and calm down. The shock I felt, when I saw the two girls rushing towards me with their roles switched, was indescribable. Cat was the first to reach my table, the rest of the hall deathly silent looking over to us.

"She runs fast." Jade panted, finally catching her up. "Even while pregnant."

"What did I do?" I squeaked, recoiling from the angry Italian girl infront of me.

"Sei un idiota!" Cat yelled at me, I was even more confused now, unable to understand the language.

"You know I can't speak Italian." I replied, my voice trembling slightly.

"She called you an idiot." Jade translated, unable to hide her smirk over the unfolding drama.

"Lui è proprio un bischero! ( _H_ _e is an idiot)_ " Cat said to Jade, I could tell she was angry because she'd forgotten to switch back to English.

"Still don't know what I did!" I cut in.

"You-!" She started to yell but cut herself off as she released the amount of onlookers around us. "I'll tell you outside." She grabbed my wrist and practically dragged me out of the lunch hall, barely giving me enough time to grab my doughnut off of my tray.

As the doors shut behind us, I faintly heard the hall break back into chatter and laughter, laughter I'm presuming was aimed at us. "What did I do?" I repeated for the umpteenth time.

"You." Cat started again, prodding me in the chest. "Told Owen and Callum that I was pan!"

"I didn't know you were hiding it." I defended.

"You know that whole group is basically obsessed with me!" She yelled. "And now they know this, it's boosted all their egos and they suddenly think I like them all back!"

"What?" I replied. "What have they been doing to you?"

"How do you not know?" Cat yelled. "They've not been leaving me alone during lessons."

"I wouldn't really know would I? We only share drama class, and none of them are in there." I replied quickly. "But what have they been doing to you?"

"Argh! I hate you!" Cat yelled back suddenly, storming away.

I took a step forward to go after her but Jade held me back. "Let her go, she needs to calm down." She said seriously.

"No, I want to know what's been going on." I replied, trying to push her away.

"You really don't know?" Jade said.

"I don't." I replied honestly.

Jade sighed and pulled me to the side of the hall. "Basically, these guys think she's easy."

"Easy?" I replied, confused.

"They can't seem to wrap their tiny brains around the fact that Cat was raped. They just think she's easy to get with or something," I could see her fists clench as she talked, "so they're set on trying to get with her."

"That's... despicable." I chocked out, feeling my own anger levels rise. "Does Cat know about this?"

"I'm not sure if she knows exactly why they're doing it." Jade sighed. "I just heard them talking a few days ago about it, I nearly attacked them all on the spot."

"I seriously can't believe them." I ran my hand though my hair. "They asked me about Tori too earlier, do you think they're trying to make a move on her as well?"

"Maybe they're just trying to break them up or something." Jade replied. "Though honestly, that wouldn't be too hard at the moment seeings as they're barely talking anyway."

"I hope Tori's scheduled gets cut down before the baby's born, Cat needs way more support than she's getting at the moment."

"That's not our problem right now." Jade reminded.

"Oh right yeah." I said back, running down the hallway to the direction that Cat left in to apologise.

* * *

No POV 

Music class; Tori, Cat and Andre's final class of the day and their favourite. But because of Tori and Andre's lack of attendance on the day, this meant that Cat was alone in the lesson. Well, alone with the school's leading douche-bag Owen. You see the teacher liked to pair her students off alphabetically, great right Valentine would be with Vega. Nope, because Owen's surname happened to be Vallins, which meant he would always be paired off with Cat. Luckily, until now all their work had been theory so Cat had yet to actually have to work with the boy... but I did say 'until now'. This particular lesson, the students were sent off into the music rooms to start composing a short song to show the teacher their musical skills, this song could be any genre or style.

The music rooms really weren't much compared to the high tech studios of Hollywood arts, which were filled with every instruments for every style and genre. At Miami High, there were only a row of cupboard sized rooms with minimal equipment in each. In Cat and Owen's room, there happened to be a speaker, guitar, piano, two plastic chairs, and a broken mic. Cat very quickly learnt that the only reason Owen had taken music was to play songs on the speakers and dance along to them in the middle of the room. "It's going to be pretty hard to write anything with you swinging your arms about like that and blasting songs." Cat muttered, as Owen's exaggerated movement nearly hit her in the face again.

"Then go outside and write outside then." Owen replied, practically yelling over the speaker's noise.

Cat yelled out in a burst of anger and pulled the speaker's pug out of the wall, cutting off the noise. "You can dance as much as you want when we've finished this, alright?"

"You're a feisty one." Owen winked, relaxing onto one of the chairs. "I'm sure I heard somewhere that you can sing."

"I guess I can." Cat mumbled.

"Speak up beautiful." He said.

"Shut it." Cat growled, blushing unintentionally.

"You must have written some songs in that old Performing Arts school you were in." He said.

"You know quite a bit about me, don't you?"

"I do my research." He replied nonchalant. "Go on, sing something you've written."

"Um... okay then." Cat replied, pulling the second plastic chair up to the piano and playing a few notes. "It's not finished yet." She said as she played.

"That's okay."

Cat opened my mouth to sing, and the images of a few nights ago came flashing back to her. She swallowed loudly and repeated the intro bars before singing again.

" _I'd like to say we gave it a try_

 _I'd like to blame it all on life_

 _Maybe we just weren't right,_

 _But that's a lie, that's a lie_

 _And we can deny it as much as we want_

 _But in time our feelings will show_

 _'Cause sooner or later_

 _We'll wonder why we gave up_

 _The truth is everyone knows_

 _Almost, almost is never enough_

 _So close to being in love_

 _If I would have known that you wanted me_

 _The way I wanted you_

 _Then maybe we wouldn't be two worlds apart_

 _But right here in each others arms_

 _Here we almost, we almost knew what love was_

 _But almost is never enough_

 _If I could change the world overnight_

 _There'd be no such thing as goodbye_

 _You'll be standing right where you were_

 _And we'd get the chance we deserve oh_

 _Try to deny it as much as you want_

 _But in time our feelings will show_

 _'Cause sooner or later_

 _We'll wonder why we gave up_

 _Truth is everyone knows_

 _Almost, almost is never enough_

 _We were so close to being in love_

 _If I would have known that you wanted me, the way I wanted you, babe_

 _Then maybe we wouldn't be two worlds apart_

 _But right here in each others arms_

 _And we almost, we almost knew what love was_

 _But almost is never enough."_

"That was like... really good." Owen smiled at me. "A little sad though."

"Yeah, I guess it is." I looked away from him.

"It's sounds really genuine, you and Tori in a rough patch?" He said, a sweeter more caring side of him coming out.

"Kinda." Cat replied honestly. "But you probably don't want to hear about it."

"Try me."

Cat sighed before replying. "Basically, you know she's away a lot."

"She does singing or something right?" He asked.

"Yeah, she's been signed to a company." Cat explained. "Well, it's kinda taken a hit on our relationship, we've been up and down for a few weeks now and I'm not sure if I can take it much more."

"You don't deserve that." He said kindly, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. In this moment, Cat didn't care that this was probably some sort of trick, in fact the thought hadn't even crossed her mind. All she knew is that this boy was being nice to her. "I think that should be our song, that's if you'd teach it to me."

"I'd like that." Cat replied, smiling weakly back at him.


	37. Chapter 37

Tori POV 

A few nights later (Day 186)

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH with 1000 added extra Hs. That's how I'm feeling right now. Today was another intense day of work, and it's been like this all week. I've barley had any time to talk to Cat, or anyone apart from Andre, for a few days and it doesn't look like my schedule is going to improve anytime soon. It's 10pm now, and I've only just gotten into the house, after having to attend a dinner for the agency to get to know some more people and 'make connections'. My feet hurt from my heels and I feel as though energy is being constantly drained out of me, like I'm leaking electricity.

I walked down the stairs and into the basement room, slowly opening to door as to not wake Cat. Tiptoeing over to the dresser, I pulled off my heels and dress and threw on a set of pyjamas before heading into the bathroom to remove my makeup and brush my teeth.

Once I'd finished, I re-opened the bathroom door and headed back into the bedroom. The light leaking from the bathroom door shone onto the bed, showing me a clear silhouette of Cat's sleeping body. Her limbs were stretched out haphazardly, somehow taking up most of the bed despite her small frame. Laying on her back made her 26 week baby bump become a very predominant feature on her, though I would never tell her that. I felt a pang of guilt in my heart over how much of the baby's growth I'd been missing, I mean we haven't even picked a name yet. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and looked back at Cat, she looked so peaceful in her sleep, laying perfectly still apart from the rhythmic rising and falling of her chest. Deciding that the light may wake her, I turned it off and shut the door and walked onto the bed. The comforter was thick and irresistibly soft, like a billowing cloud. I toppled into it, relieved to rest my weary feet.

"Tori?" I heard Cat mumble from beside me on the bed.

"Shit." I muttered. "Sorry Babe, I didn't mean to wake you."

"Why are you back so late?" She yawned, turning her head to face me.

"I'll tell you in the morning okay." I replied, too tired to go into details.

"I'm not going to get back to sleep now." She moaned.

"Why not?" I asked, thinking back it's a pretty stupid question.

Cat simply grabbed my hand and placed it onto her bump. Even though her clothes and skin, I could feel the baby kicking. "That's why."

"You've got a little soccer player in there." I laughed quietly.

"Can you tell him that my bladder isn't a ball then?" She replied, weakly smiling. "I nearly wet myself in history class today." I couldn't stop myself for laughing for some reason. "You going to be in school tomorrow?" She asked.

"I don't think so." I replied in an almost inaudible volume.

"Great." She said back quickly, rolling way from my slightly. "Night."

"Night." I replied, sighing.

* * *

Owen POV (In music class the next morning)

I've never actually liked music class until now, normally I just flunk it or take one of the other kid's songs without them knowing. But Cat's song sounds great and she's taught me the piano chords and the lyrics for the 2nd verse, bridge, pre-chorus and chorus to sing with her. That's something people don't really know about me, I'm actually a half decent singer, but I'm no where near as good as Cat which is why she's singing most of the song. Today's the day we're performing it to the teacher and I was originally nervous, but after hearing the ear-bleeding songs the rest of the class had put together, I was feeling on top of the world.

With the rest of the class in their seats, I sat at the bass end of the piano with Cat at the treble. The teacher clicked 'play' on a camera he'd set up and told us to start the song. Cat played the intro while I played the chords when appropriate, and the signing began.

[Verse 1: Cat]

 _"I'd like to say we gave it a try_

 _I'd like to blame it all on life_

 _Maybe we just weren't right_

 _But that's a lie, that's a lie_

[Pre-Chorus: Cat]

 _And we can deny it as much as we want_

 _But in time our feelings will show_

 _'Cause sooner or later we'll wonder why we gave up_

 _The truth is, everyone knows_

[Chorus: Cat]

 _Almost, almost is never enough_

 _So close to being in love_

 _If I would have known that you wanted me the way I wanted you_

 _Then maybe we wouldn't be two worlds apart_

 _But right here in each others arms_

 _And we almost, we almost knew what love was_

 _But almost is never enough_

[Verse 2: Me]

 _If I could change the world overnight_

 _There'd be no such thing as goodbye_

 _You'd be standing right where you were_

 _And we'd get the chance we deserve, oh_

[Pre-Chorus: Me]

 _Try to deny it as much as you want_

 _But in time our feelings will show_

 _'Cause sooner or later we'll wonder why we gave up_

 _The truth is everyone knows_

[Chorus: Cat & Me]

 _Almost, almost is never enough_

 _So close to being in love_

 _If I would have known that you wanted me the way I wanted you_

 _Then maybe we wouldn't be two worlds apart_

 _But right here in each others arms_

 _And we almost, we almost knew what love was_

 _But almost is never enough_

[Bridge: Cat & Me]

 _Huh-huh, baby_

 _You know, you know, baby_

 _Almost, is never enough, baby_

 _You know, hey_

 _And we can deny it as much as we want_

 _But in time our feelings will show_

 _'Cause sooner or later we'll wonder why we gave up_

 _The truth is, everyone knows_

[Chorus: Cat & Me]

 _Almost, almost is never enough (is never enough, baby)_

 _So close to being in love (so close)_

 _If I would have known that you wanted me_

 _The way I wanted you_

 _Then maybe we wouldn't be two worlds apart_

 _But right here in each others arms_

 _And we almost, we almost knew what love was (baby)_

 _But almost is never enough_

[Outro: Cat]

 _Huh-huh, baby (almost)_

 _You know, you know, baby_

 _Almost, is never enough, baby_

 _You know, hey._ "

Once we'd finished, the whole class broke into a loud applause and I felt even better than I had before. It was great, that was until the teacher asked if he could post it to the school website, and that's when my happiness seemed to disappear. If word got out that I'd just sung a lovey-dovey song, the other guys would take the piss for sure, well Mitchell wouldn't but Freddie and Callum totally would. Just when I was about to tell him no, Cat looked up at me with her big doe-like eyes, and the word changed to 'yes' as it left my lips. I hope this doesn't ruin my cred' too much.

* * *

Jade POV

At home after school

"WHAT THE CRAP?" I yelled out, jumping off of the couch where Beck and I were lounging. He managed to get today off of filming, so we're spending some time together cuddling on the couch while scrolling though social media.

"What is it?" Beck asked, trying to look at my phone to see what'd made me so mad.

"Look at this." I showed him the latest tweet of Veronica Nerezza, the leading bitch of the school. I hate her so so much, and I know that that coming from me isn't much. She is the stern and bossy leader who is snarky, sarcastic, and a general nightmare to be around. But people seem to like her for some reason, my only guess is because she's is the head cheerleader at Miami High.

"'Tomorrow morning I'm so going to the principle to get that video removed.'" He read the tweet off of my phone. "What?"

"Look below it!" I yelled, shoving the phone further into his face.

His eyes darted to the tweet directly bellow it, also from Veronica. "'When I get my hands on that midget bitch I'll end her.'" He read. "I'm sorry Babe but I don't get it"

"Oh for-." I growled, lowering my voice. "You saw the video on the school website right."

"The one of Owen and Ca- oh crap, she's talking about Cat." Beck gulped. "Why is she so mad about a video of them singing?"

"'Cause she's dating Owen or something like that." I replied, pacing back and forth. "I swear if she lays a hand on Cat, I'll... I'll."

"It's an empty threat." Beck said calmly.

"Do you think Cat knows?" I replied, trying to calm myself down.

"Maybe, right now she's in the pool." Beck nodded to the window/door where we could see Cat was laying on a rectangular pool inflatable, just floating on the water surface. "On the pool." He corrected.

"You distract her and I'll grab her phone." I said. We opened the sliding door and walked out of the house and onto the pool decking.

"Hey." Cat said from the inflatable. "You two alright?"

"Yeah." Beck replied smoothly. "You enjoying your float about there?"

"It's the only place I can lay without my back hurting." She replied honestly.

"You know that if you move, you're going to fall into the water... in your clothes." Beck replied, he was being a decent distraction.

"Well sorry that I can't fit in my swimsuit anymore." Cat snapped suddenly.

"I.. um..." Beck stuttered.

"Sorry." Cat replied, shaking her head at herself. "Mood swings."

"It's alright." Beck replied.

"We'll leave you to it then." I cut in, sneakily showing Beck that I'd taken Cat's phone from the table beside the sunbeds.

"Cya." Cat said as we walked back into the house.

In an attempt to not get caught, Beck and I walked through the house and to our bedroom, climbing onto the bed and swiping across one of her Twitter notifications and typing in the 3 letter code to unlock her phone. "How do you know her password?" He asked.

"It's her name." I replied bluntly, waiting for the app to open.

"What're we even looking for?" Beck asked, looking at the phone screen over my shoulder.

"I don't know, I'm just going to check her DMs." I did what I said and opened up the Direct Messages part of her profile. "Look who it is." I commented as I clicked on the unread message from Veronica.

"That's harsh." Beck commented as his eyes skimmed over the message.

"Damn." I gasped, reading the multiple threats from the girl. "She really thinks Cat is trying to get with Owen."

"Is she blind or something?" Beck said. "Cat's happy with Tori."

"Not at school she's not." I replied honestly. "Tori's rarely in, so to everyone else Cat's practically a single woman."

"This isn't good." Beck ran a hand though his hair. "I wish I could help but-"

"You're busy filming." I replied, clearing the messages from Cat's phone. "I've got this."

"Why'd you clear them?" He asked, looking at me with a puzzled expression.

"She'll be stressed out if she saw them, and stress isn't good for the baby." I retorted.

"This is why you're the smart one." He lent forward and kissed me lightly on the cheek. "Love you."

"Love you too."


	38. Chapter 38

Jade POV at school the next day.

CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP! I know if Maria could hear my thoughts right now she'd be yelling at me for swearing, but she can't hear me and she's not here. I shouldn't have hidden those messages from Cat. I thought it would stop her stress, but all it's done is make Veronica even madder because she thinks Cat ignored her, and it just made Cat confused.

Basically, as soon as we walked into the main hallway, we were approached by Veronica and her gang of dollar-store barbie dolls. What I mean by that is they all have that stupid 'perfect' smile figure, matching pink sparkly outfits and the fakest smiles known to man. But behind their caked-on makeup their's defiantly something off with them. "You!" Veronica stepped forward and prodded her finger into Cat's arm, flicking her bleach-blonde hair behind her with her spare hand.

"Don't you dare touch her." I cut in between then.

"I can do what I want." Veronica spat, stepping forward and making Cat and I step back.

"W...what did I do?" Cat squeaked from behind me.

"You know what you did you Cow." Veronica snarled, her green eyes staring straight past me and directly down to Cat.

"I really don't." Cat replied sheepishly. At first I wondered why she was acting so meager, until I saw her wrap her arms protectively around her baby bump, she knew that any form of fight wouldn't end well for her so she had to step down.

"You were making a move on my man!" Veronica yelled. "I saw what you did, the video was on the website and then sent to me like 100 times, I saw the looks you gave him while you were singing. And that stupid song you-"

"Good story, but in what chapter do you shut the fuck up?" I cut in again, standing further between the two.

"Move!" Veronica yelled in my face. "This isn't about you."

"I don't want a fight or anything, I really wasn't trying to-" Cat stumbled out.

"Too late bitch." Veronica said to Cat, aggressively pushing me out of the way. I tried to stand back between them again but the rest of Veronica's gang grabbed onto me and held me back. "By the end of the day, you'll regret ever crossing me." She placed a hands on Cat's shoulders and shoved her backwards into a locker behind her before quickly walking away, her gang letting go of me and walking away behind her.

"You okay Cat?" I asked, rushing towards her.

"Mhm." She replied, giving me a shaky nod before running away from me by pushing her way down the hallway.

That's a bad start to the day isn't it? But that's only the beginning, it's now lunchtime and it's gotten 100 times worse since school began. I swear to God, I've never wanted to physically hurt someone more than I do right now. That bitch has been spreading rumours all day about Cat. These rumours are past horrible, and to the point where they make me feel sick just thinking about them. I can't even repeat it, but somehow everyone in the school seems to believe them...

" _Faker_!" A random girl yelled as Cat and I walked past her on the way to the cafeteria. I felt my fists clench but I kept walking forward for Cat's sake.

" _What kind of sick person would pretend to be raped?_ " Another commented to her friends as they walked past, pretending to whisper but intentionally saying it loud enough for Cat to hear.

"Ignore them Cat." I said though clenched teeth. "We know the truth, they know nothing."

"I... I..." Cat stammered out in front of me, her voice unable to leave her throat to finish the sentence.

"I swear I'll knock that bitch out if you want." I said, turning Cat around to face me.

"No." Cat shook her head. "You'll get suspended... and I need someone here with me... please." Her voice broke as she talked. "With Tori, Andre and Beck always away and Robbie being ill today, I can't have you leave me to."

"I know, I'm here still and I'll stay here."

" _FAKER!_ " A random person yelled from behind us, I saw Cat's eyes fill with tears.

"Can we n... not go to the lunch hall?" She asked.

"You need to eat Cat." I said, trying to keep calm.

"I'd rather not." She said, pushing straight past me and walking away.

I felt my heart drop in my chest as people kept harassing her as she walked down the hallway, so I tried to stay close behind, but due to us walking against the flow of people we were quite easily separated. On top of the relentless teasing of random people calling her a faker, many profanities were shot her way, from ' _slut'_ , ' _hoe_ ', and ' _skank_ ' to things even worse. The groups of boys approaching her, thinking she was _'easy_ ' also suddenly increased. I hated it for her... people were truly heartless.

* * *

Cat POV

I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home. I keep repeating in my mind, tears freely falling down my face as I pushed my way down the hallway, trying desperately to reach the girl's toilets. Jade's behind me I think, but knowing my luck today she's been cut off by the crowd of people around us.

I hate Veronica... I HATE HER! And Owen too, he should have told me that she'd react like that, I HATE HIM! I saw the girl's bathroom door and pushed it open, quickly checking that no one else was inside. Every word that had been said to me was only fueling the fire that burned inside of me. Every violated phrase was like gasoline to it, my fists began to clench and my jaw rooted. When the final mento had been added to the coke inside of me I exploded with anger, slamming my hand into one of the cubicle doors as the primeval instinct took over.

Out of all the stupid ideas I've had in my life, this certainly was amongst the worst. I looked up at the fist-sized hole in the door, and then back down to my sudden swollen hand, pain pulsing though it. Slowly, I uncleaned my fist, each movement painful. "Shit." I muttered to myself, really unsure of what the hell I was meant to do.

"Cat?" I heard Jade call as she opened the door. "Good, there you-" She saw me caressing my hand beside a gaping hole. "What did you do?"

"What does it look like I did?" I replied bluntly, wincing at each movement my hand made.

"Decided to break your hand apparently." She raced forward and looked at the redness of my swollen knuckles.

"It was either that door or her face." I replied coldly. "And the door can't punch me back, so I chose it."

"Poor door." Jade replied, trying to ease the tension. "Come on, we're going home."

"But it's only lunch." I whispered.

"I don't care."

* * *

No POV

The girls took the next day off of school, pretending that they'd caught Robbie's illness, and luckily for them it was Friday meaning they had the following two days off of school for the weekend. On Saturday night, everyone was sat around the dinner table, tucking into one of Maria's home cooked meals. Dinner's were the teen's favourite time of the day, especially when they were all home. There would be no phones, no television and a whole lot of talking, everyone would talk about the ups and downs of their weeks and the other's would listen. It sounds boring but the downtime was very relaxing, even if it went on for hours after everyone had finished eating, as Cat's parents would say: "A tavola non si invecchia" (At the table, you don't get old) so they'd all talk until it was practically time for bed.

"So how has school been this week?" Leo asked, taking another bite of food.

Jade and Cat exchanged a quick look before Robbie replied. "Good, sucks that I had to miss the last two days though." He said sourly, unaware of everything that had happened the day before.

"You just had to get us ill." Jade fake coughed, pretending to get over the quick cold.

"Yours passed in hours, I've still got it!" Robbie replied, as if on cue, a real sneeze came out.

"Bless you." The table chorused.

"Are we not going to tell anyone about it?" Jade whisper-spoke to Cat.

"Not until they find out at school." Cat replied coldly. Since school, her demeanour had rapidly dropped, everyone else just put it down to her 'cold' but Jade knew better.

"How about you, Andre and Tori? How're your albums going?" Leo asked.

"It's great." Andre started. "They've agreed to use some of my old songs so it's already half done, I just need to write and chose a few more and sort out the final details."

"Sounds great Lad." Leo replied. "You have to play some of them to me once you get the time."

"Will do." Andre replied.

"Tori?" Maria asked.

"I've got a few songs and I working on one they've sent me right now, I've just got to write the second verse." Tori replied tiredly.

"You need more sleep. Why aren't you sleeping?" Maria asked, her tone stern but concerned.

"I am sleeping." Tori reasurred.

"Is she?" Maria asked Cat.

"I dunno, she's always back after I'm already in bed." Cat shrugged, twirling some pasta around her fork, wincing as she moved her sore hand.

"Not _always._ " Tori replied, slightly harsher then she meant.

"Whatever." Cat rolled her eyes, taking a bite of her rolled up pasta.

"Well then." Raffael cut in, changing the subject to ease the tension. "An epic car came into the garage today..."

As Raffa rambled on about his day, it was hard to miss the slight glares exchanged between Cat and Tori. Tori's busy scheduled had brought the girls to an all time low point, as Tori was constantly away and even when she was home she was spending all her time catching up on missed school work. Cat had been spending a lot of her time using the piano in their room to write her own songs, which would rile Tori up while she was studying, so the half-Latina would sometimes walk to the local library to get some peace and quite. All in all, the two girls barely had any time together anymore and it was really effecting them.


	39. Chapter 39

Day 192, the following Monday.

Robbie POV

I decided to drive today because Jade 'couldn't be bothered' and Cat couldn't with her busted hand, from 'accidentally hitting a wall as she was dancing' which I somehow don't believe because she's hated dancing recently. I'm a decent driver, passing my test on my 2nd try, but I'm not the best when being told shocking things, such as being told to 'prepare for the worst' over Cat being badly bullied. "I was off school for 1 day!" I yelled as I turned the car around the corner, nearly crashing it into a tree as my mind was buzzing. "How did I miss that much?!" I continued as I pulled the car back into the right direction and off of the curb.

"How about I drive?" Jade said, her knuckles turning white from where they were tightly gripping to the sides of her passengers seat.

"I'm doing just fine." I grumbled, almost not stopping at a stop sign.

"If we crash, you're paying for the damages" She shot back.

"Well sorry that I'm a little mad." I jabbed. "Cat, why didn't you tell me before? Or tell your parents, they could get it to stop."

"No." Cat shook her head from the back right seat. "It'll pass... I hope."

"Let's hope so." I sighed, turning into the parking lot. "And I told you I could drive just fine."

"I'm very proud." Jade replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes at me.

"Gank." I mumbled under my breath. "Anyway, Cat it's probably cooled down by now, drama doesn't normally stick for long before people get bored with it and forget."

* * *

"Guess I was wrong." I gulped as we stood in front of Cat's locker, the words ' _LYING SLUT_ ' drawn onto it in black permanent marker.

"You don't say." Cat growled, unlocking the door and quickly grabbing her books before slamming it shut again and walking away briskly.

"I'll end that Veronica bitch I swear." Jade growled as she followed Cat down the corridor.

"We've got to do it somewhat that doesn't make it too obvious." I added. "Just mess with her a little."

"I like how you're thinking Shaprio." Jade smirked. "I know what we can do to her."

"Flour bomb her?" I asked.

"Flour bomb her." She repeated, her smirk growing. "And something else more dramatic, but let's start small."

"What're you two whispering about?" Cat asked, spinning on her heel to look at us.

"I was just telling him that he'll never be driving us to school again." Jade lied quickly.

Cat narrowed her eyes at us, as if to check if we were lying, before her face relaxed again. "Kay kay." She said, walking into the Homeroom classroom. Usually we were early enough to be first into class but for some reason today the classroom was already full before we walked in. Every head snapped towards the door as we walked in and continued to stare at us as we walked along the room and to our seats.

With Cat in front, most eyes were on her as she walked between the different tables, including Veronica's clique's table. They openly laughed at us as we walked past and one of them, Tilly I think, suck her foot out to trip Cat up. "Oops." She said dumbly as Cat started to fall forward. The world started to go in slow motion as I lunged forward to try and catch her. However I was beaten by Micheal, the quiet boy from Owen's group, who jumped up from where he was stood and wrapped his arms around Cat's waist, stopping her from falling face first into the ground.

"You okay?" He asked, his voice barely audible.

"Yeah." Cat said shakily. "Thanks."

"No problem." Micheal replied, letting go of her as she regained her footing. "You-" He turned to Tilly, talking louder and with more expression then I'd ever heard from him before. "-could have really ended up hurting her. What if she fell and hit her stomach? What would have happened to the baby?"

"I don't care." Tilly shrugged, unable to make eye contact with her.

"You should do." Micheal said, walking away and back to his table.

In a state of shock and confusion; Cat, Jade and I walked to our own table at the front of our room and sat down. "I need to remember to thank him properly." Cat mumbled.

"You know what, he doesn't actually seem that bad compared to the rest of Owen and his cronies." I spoke up, quickly looking over to where the 4 boys were sat. 3 of them were bantering with each other while Micheal was rummaging though his bag for something, uninterested in the other's discussion. "He's never caused any trouble or anything."

"I wonder why he hangs out with them." Cat added.

"Beats me." jade shrugged. "Seriously though, are you okay Cat?"

"I'm fine." Cat replied. "That could have gone badly though."

"We need to report that, she could have ended up killing the baby, and we have a whole class to back us up." I spoke up.

"We all know everyone would be too scared to speak up against them." Cat sighed. "Just leave it okay."

"We can't just leave it." Jade growled.

"We're going to have to, aren't we?" Cat grumbled back.

* * *

After school

"Where's Cat?" I asked Jade as she walked up to the car, where I was waiting for her after the bell rang.

"She wanted to stay behind in the music rooms, something about wanting a place to write." Jade replied, unlocking the car door and sitting in the driver's seat.

"She has a piano in her room at home." I replied. "Why can't she use that?"

"I've gone over all that with her already." Jade sighed. "I think she just wants to be alone for a bit."

"So we're just going to leave her to walk home alone?" I asked, climbing into the passengers seat.

"I told her to call me to pick her up when she's done." She started the engine and started to drive away from the school.

* * *

Cat POV

I hate this place, and yet I chose to stay. I guess that's because I don't hate the music practice rooms in this school, I just hate everywhere else and everyone in it. The things they said haven't been able to leave my mind, from calling me a 'liar' to 'slut' to the abundance of boys who keep giving me their numbers if I want a 'good time.' I... I just can't believe they think of me like that.

The thoughts are accelerating inside my head. I want them to slow down so I can breathe, but they won't. My breaths come in gasps and I feel like I will black out. My heart is hammering inside my chest like it belongs to a rabbit running for its skin. The room spins and I sit on the floor, trying to make everything slow to something my brain and body can cope with. I feel so sick. I want to call Jade but the phone is too far away, it's too far away, it's too far away, she's gone, she went, breathe, gone, what number, too far away... blackness... creeping blackness... I'm on the floor in a ball- the fetal position. Where is she, what's my name, who to call, what's the number, the room is spinning...blackness...she's gone...

...

After laying on the floor for God knows how long, my hearing is the first to return, then my eye sight follows suit. I'm still shaking as I push back onto my butt on the floor of practice room and use a chair to push myself up to my feet. Panic attacks aren't foreign to me, but that's the first time I've been though one without Jade or Tori beside me. "Just keep breathing Cat." I whispered to myself, taking a swig of water from a bottle in my school bag. "And breathing, and breathing and - that sounds like a song." I mumbled to myself, making a note of it in my music book.

" _Just keep breathin' and breathin' and breathin' and breathin'_

 _And oh, I gotta keep, keep on breathin'_

 _Just keep breathin' and breathin' and breathin' and breathin'_

 _And oh, I gotta keep, keep on breathin'."_ I whisper-sung to myself. "That could work for something." **(A/N Song is originally by Ariana Grande, but for the sake of the story, Cat just made it up.)** Any repercussions of the panic attack suddenly rushed away from my brain, seemingly forgotten about. I started jotting down a few more rough ideas in my notebook before picking up an acoustic guitar which was balanced beside the chair. I didn't come here to write more songs, though I could do that, I came here to refine my other ones in peace and quite. Don't get me wrong, I do like being at home and singing, but I always feel like there is someone watching me or listening as a spill my personal lyrics. I kinda wish I had a recording space to go to, like Tori, but for now I'm just going to have to write and record them here on my phone to maybe make something out of them in a few years when my baby's a little older and I'm more on my feet.

I opened a specific page on my notebook and placed it on a music stand, pulling the chair up to it and positioning the guitar on my lap. "You're not making this easy baby." I grumbled, trying to hold the guitar up over my baby bump. After settling with holding it a little tilted to my right side, I placed my phone on the music stand beside my note book and started to record myself. I adjusted my still not fully healed hand (from punching that door) before playing the first chord, which in this case was E minor.

 **(Song is Small Bump by Ed Sheeran but for the sake of the story, Cat wrote it. I've edited the lyrics slightly to fit her situation a little more.)**

" _You're just a small bump unborn, and soon you'll be brought to life_  
 _You might have my curly hair, or maybe my doe brown eyes_  
 _I'll hold your body in my hands, be as gentle as I can_  
 _But for now you're a scan of my unmade plans,_  
 _A small bump in and soon you'll be brought to life_

 _I'll whisper quietly, I'll give you nothing but truth_  
 _And while you're inside me, I'll put my future in you_

 _You are my one and only_  
 _You can wrap your fingers round my thumb and hold me tight_  
 _Oh, you are my one and only_  
 _You can wrap your fingers round my thumb and hold me tight_  
 _And you'll be alright_

 _Oh, you're just a small bump unknown, you'll grow into your skin_  
 _With a dimple like mine on your left cheek when you grin_  
 _Finger nails the size of a half grain of rice_  
 _And eyelids closed to be soon opened wide_  
 _A small bump, and soon you'll open your eyes._

 _And I'll hold you tightly, I'll tell you nothing but truth_  
 _While you're inside me, I'll put my future in you_

 _You are my one and only_  
 _You can wrap your fingers round my thumb and hold me tight_  
 _Oh, you are my one and only_  
 _You can wrap your fingers round my thumb and hold me tight_  
 _And you'll be alright_

 _And you can lie with me_  
 _With your tiny feet_  
 _When you're half asleep_  
 _I'll leave you be_  
 _Right in front of me_  
 _For a couple weeks_  
 _So I can keep you safe_

 _'Cause you are my one and only_  
 _You can wrap your fingers round my thumb and hold me tight_  
 _You are my one and only_  
 _You can wrap your fingers round my thumb and hold me tight_  
 _And you'll be alright_

 _'Cause you're just my small bump unborn and soon you'll be brought to life and I am ready for you here. We love you, our Baby Boy_."

Being satisfied with the video on the first shot, I mean I should be 'cause I've been practising it every night at home for over a week. "Oof." I gasped as I felt the baby kick me hard. "Does that mean you liked it?" I laughed to myself, well I mean I laughed to the baby. "I really need to give you a name."

"Cat?" I was cut off by my music teacher knocking on the practice room door and walking in. "I'm going to head home now so I need to lock up."

"Oh right." I replied, grabbing my notebook and putting the guitar back on the stand. "What's the time?"

"4:30, you've been here and hour and a half." The teacher replied.

I had to hide my shocked reaction as they said it. " _How long was I unconscious for?"_ I thought to myself as I picked up my bag and walked out of the room. "I miss Hollywood Arts." I mumbled as I walked down the hallway and out of the school. My old music teachers would let us stay in the practice rooms for as late as we wanted, giving me the keys and telling me to give them back the next morning, but here I couldn't even stay two hours. Back in HA here was a time where Robbie and I actually ended up staying at the school overnight 'cause we'd fallen asleep in the room, luckily we had spare clothes in our lockers for the next school day.

I pulled out my phone to call Jade to pick me up, but after deciding I hadn't had enough time to think to myself and relax, I chose to put in my earplugs and walk home. "Phoe." I muttered to myself as I looked at my mobile data. "I'm all out - wait." I scrolled back though mine and Tori's messages and clicked on a audio message she'd sent me of the rough copy of one of her new song, 'Gold' it was called **(Think of the song by Victoria Justice, just change the 'boy'/'man' to 'girl')** she was sent the backing a few weeks ago, and wrote these lyrics over the top of it. I really like the song, she says it's about me and what was going through her mind just before she asked me out. It's really sweet. I want to write some love songs about us too, but so far they've all been about the rough place we're in right now, it's hard to write love songs when you're feeling so bad. Anyway, Tori seems to be doing it somehow, her albums already looking pretty filled with love songs, though they aren't all about me because of her writing them when we were in HA before we really got feelings for each other, though I like to think they are about me. I really miss her, I hope things clear up between us soon.

After the song finished belting though by headphones, a clicked onto the next audio clip she'd sent me, this one was one she'd sung for the Platinum Music Awards 'Make It in America.' This has gotta be one of my favourites on her album so far, it describes what she's going though right now as expresses what she's going through.

" _I wanna taste the sun_

 _Cause baby I'm born to run_

 _I got a feeling that I'm not the only one_

 _I, I wanna show some skin_

 _Yeah baby I need the ocean_

 _And you can't stop me now I've got my heart in motion_

 _I want to make it in America_

 _Make it in America."_ I started humming to myself as I walked across the street, already about 4 minutes into my 15 minute walk home.

"That's your mommy's voice," I whispered to myself, as if I were talking to the baby, "your other mommy obviously. You don't really hear her much, 'cause she's always busy, but she'll stay home more soon. I promise."

* * *

Jade POV

When Cat got home 

I've just given Cat a major lecture about how she should have called me to pick her up so that she didn't need to walk. I swear, I'm acting like more of a mother than she is, and she's the pregnant one. I get why she did it though, after the day she just had I understand that she wanted some time to clear her head. She needs anything to help her cope right now, because I'm scared she'll go back to self harming again.

My mind flashed back to that day in Wanko's where I caught her with scars on her wrist. Unintentionally, I moved my right hand onto my left forearm where the very faint white lines lay of my past internal battles. If any of this sends her back to that, then I won't rest until Veronica's beaten - and I don't mean just beaten up. I mean dead. There isn't a place she could hide, I would find her, destroy her. I don't much care how it happens, I don't need her to suffer, I just need her extinguished from this universe. You may think it an overreaction, but you underestimated how much I care for Cat. That girl is the purest person on the face of the earth, and for her to be put in this pregnancy situation the way she was is already enough to make my blood boil. But for her to be accused of lying about it for attention, that's burned in my heart so deep that it's ingrained in the tissue.

Veronica deserves every bad thing my brain can think of, but only an idiot would be dumb enough to not see that she has the whole school wrapped around her finger, and anything I do would result in permanent expulsion. Which means I have to be sneaky with this. I think back to Robbie and I's conversation from earlier in the day about flour bombing her. At HA the flour bomber didn't get caught for days, so if we do it as a one time thing there's no way we'd get caught, all we need is someone mad enough to do-"RAFFA!" I yelled mid thought, Cat's brother was the maddest person I know, he'd totally be up for it especially for revenge purposes. A smirk spread across my face as the plan started to fit together like a puzzle. "Tomorrow is school photo day." I mumbled to myself. "The perfect day to trash someone's appearance.

Now all I have to do is run the plan past Robbie and then wait until Raffa's home from work.

* * *

"WHAT?!" Raffael screamed as Robbie and I told him what'd been happening with Cat at school.

"Shh." Robbie cut him off. "Cat might hear us."

"She's in the basement and we're in my bedroom." Raffa snapped back, starting to pace back and forth. "So you're telling me my little sister is being bullied and harassed on the daily, and all you want to do is flour bomb one girl?"

"It's the most extreme we can go without getting expelled. If that were to happen, Cat would be alone there and it would be 100 times worse." I sighed, shaking my head.

"Have you tried reporting it to anyone?" Raffa replied, running a hand though his dyed hair.

"The teachers all know, they can't miss it really," Robbie mumbled the last part to himself so I could barely make out what he'd said, "and they seem to be ignoring it."

"That's.. argh!" Raffa yelled, kicking the side of his desk, before obviously regretting it as he winced in pain. "How about I at least try and flour bomb a few kids, give me their pictures and if they catch me then I'll say I have nothing to do with you."

"I wish we could, but you'll be arrested if caught." I reminded him.

"It would only be community service at most." He shrugged. "I can take that."

"I guess we should go buy the flour now then." Robbie said. "And thanks for agreeing."

"Anything for Cat." Raffael shrugged. "Also, I've already got a costume I can use."

"Really?" I asked. "What's it meant for?"

"Don't ask." He shook his head, keeping down a smile. "And I'll call in sick for work tomorrow."

"Let's hope this goes well." I gulped.


	40. Chapter 40

Jade POV (The next morning)

" _Come on Raffa!_ " I mentally screamed. We'd just been taken out of our second class and lead into the main hall for our school photos. The whole of Senior year is lined up alphabetically for our photos (well most, Tori, Beck and Andre aren't here.) I can see Cat in front of me, Owen's stood between us. He keeps trying to get her attention, I think he's apologising, but Cat's having none of it.

"If you were really sorry, you would have said it by now." Cat growled though clenched teeth, not looking at him in the eyes.

"But I-" Owen tried to reply as the gym doors shot open to reveal Raffa, covered head to toe in a purple suit and face mask, wielding two plastic containers filled with flour in either hand.

The whole hall was filled with both shock and confusion as Raffa broke into a full sprint, pelting towards Veronica. "REVENGE!" He screamed as he slammed the flour into her face before running back out he way he came.

I know exactly what was running though Veronica's mind, she was mortified, frozen to the spot. Traumatized and couldn't believe it had happened, and in front of everybody too. She stood soaking in the laughter, her head was probably spinning. _G_ _ood_. She'd never live this down, in 70 years people would be reminding her of this as she ate mush in the nursing home, and she deserved all of it.

As she turned on her heel and broke into a fill sprint out of the gym, my eye caught Cat's. She was laughing so hard it was hurting her, I could see that though the uncomfortable position she was in with her hands around her stomach. Between us, Owen broke out of the line to follow his girlfriend out of the hall and the sound of manic laughed informed us that Raffa was stood outside of the door with another flour pot so Owen had been hit too. "D...did you do this?" Cat chocked out between bursts of laughter.

"I don't know, did I?" I smirked, laughing back, along with the rest of the hall, even the school photographer was giggling. I noted that Veronica's clique of friends weren't quite as amused but they were all definitely pulling very amused expressions.

"J...Jade!" She laugh-scolded. "Who was that person then?"

"I told you, I might be involved but I might not." I shrugged.

"Thank you." She smiled at me, her laughter dying down. "I needed that."

"Anything for you." I said, holding my arms out for one of my rare hugs.

* * *

Throughout the day, a few other people were bombed by Raffa, from some of Veronica's clique to boys who tried hitting on Cat. Of course their bombings weren't quite as bad as the first two, being after the photos. Speaking of which, Owen and Veronica both had to take their photos with flour still all over their clothes and stuck in their hair- it was perfect.

I'm currently sat in my final class for the day and I'm so so so bored! I just want this bloody bell to ring so I can meet Cat in the music rooms and then go home. We don't normally meet up before walking to the car, but I'd be kidding myself if I wasn't worried about her welfare today. 'BRRRRING' sounded, sawing though my skull and snapping me back to reality. I started to pack up my things to leave before the teacher stated that God-forsaken sentence ' _the bell doesn't dismiss you, I do.'_ WELL FUNNY THING CAUSE IT'S CALLED THE DISMISSLE BELL FOR A REASON YOU WENCH! Reluctantly, I sat back into my chair while she finished her brain numbing speech, tapping my foot impatiently on the ground.

* * *

Cat POV

"Where are you Jade?" I muttered to myself as I checked the time on my phone. The bell rang 5 minutes ago, that's more than enough time to walk down 1 set of stairs to Music.

I saw a flash of neon pink clothing round the corner and I gasped, Veronica. Quickly, I tried to open the door of the practice room beside me but it was locked. SHIT. She picked up her pace and she walked over to me, each step increasing her speed, she's pissed off at me. Her heels clink on the floor as she walks closer and closer before stopping in front of me and saying, "What the FUCK was that about? Huh?" She's so close to me that I could see every particle of flour still left in her bleach blonde hair, but I dart my eyes to the floor and pretend that nobody's around me.

Maybe she doesn't like my attitude as she roughly places a hand under my chin and snaps my head up to face her. "I'm talking to you," she says. I still try not to look at her because I'm tired of having people harassing me. "Look up," she snaps pushing my chin up again so I'm forced to look right into her green eyes. Before my eyes can even focus properly I feel her fist colliding with my face. I fall on the ground, and my hand doesn't go to my face to cover my bloody nose rather they go to my baby bump to check I didn't fall on it. "How does it feel you bitch?" She screamed at me as I tried to sit up. "Not so fast!" She yelled, putting her heeled shoe onto my stomach, not putting any pressure down but leaving me paralysed over how venerable a position I'm now in. "I could so it you know." She smirked evilly. "The slightest bit of force and that baby of your is dead."

"P...please no." I breathed out, the blood from my nose flowing into my mouth.

"Why not?" She yelled. "You're in no place to bargain with me." I felt her start to put pressure down.

"Stop!" I squealed, trying to pull my body backwards in a feeble attempt to escape.

"You deser-" She started, before suddenly being thrown off of me. I looked up to see who had come to save me. Jade.

* * *

Jade POV

I don't even remember walking down the corridor, but suddenly my fist was slamming into her face, knocking her away from Cat. She swung back at me, but I managed to step back in time for her to miss the connection. We stumbled apart for a brief second to catch our breaths before diving back at each other, eyes narrowed in determination.

I dodged her fist and came up with my own; for a brief instant, her dark green eyes widened before she managed to tilt her head back and slam it into mine. Stars burst in my vision but I shook it off, blinding throwing a sloppy kick.

She stepped back, easily evading the kick. "Is that all you got?" she crowed, smirking infuriatingly at me. I growled and threw myself at her. My blood hummed in my veins as determination and anger really took over. I grasped her head in my hands and brought my knee cap up to her nose, there was a blunt crack and I released her light haired head. Crimson leaked from both her nostrils and her nose was twisted right. She drew her fist back again and it ploughed into my stomach, it was like hitting a train head on. My guts smashed together, blood vessels bursting. I repaid this by punching her jaw, my fist collided with all my body weight. I continued this battering until she fell to the floor. Her chest gently rose and sank with each shallow breath she drew in.

Turning to Cat, who had pushed herself against the wall with her knees to her chest, tears mixing with the blood from her nose. "It's okay Kitty." I whispered to her, pulling her body close to mine. "It's okay."

"C...camera." She choked out, pointing behind me to a CCTV camera sticking out of the wall. A mix of relief and worry filled me. We had proof over her harassing Cat... but then again a lot of my actions weren't really 'self defence'. I was definitely going to get into some trouble for this.

The clinking of heels brought me back to my thoughts as a teacher walked around the corner of the hallway. She had a hawkish air about her. Even her nose was curved and beaky. She had eyes of palest blue that fixed you in ice should you dare disagree or talk out of turn. She was willow-wand thin, so stick-like that it was hard to imagine her eating much at all, at least not without wiping her narrow lips after every bite. Her hair wasn't so much blonde as a washed out brown, like it just couldn't be bothered to be any colour at all. Any form of composure she had was suddenly lost as she looked at the scene in front of her. First there was Cat and I sitting against the wall, with blood flowing from Cat's nose and my left eye starting to swell; then there was Veronica, curled up on the floor by the opposite wall, milking all or her injuries to the fullest. "What on earth has happened here?!" The teacher screeched, my hands shot to my ears to protect myself from the annoyingly high pitch that came from her mouth.

"Just watch the CCTV footage." I replied bluntly, pointing to the camera.

* * *

A few hours later.

The Principal's Office, somewhere I'm not unfamiliar with due to my days at Hollywood Arts, however I've never been sent to it before at Miami High. Well, until today of course. The three of us are sat outside of it, waiting to be called in. Maria and Leo are inside, talking briefly with Mr Watson, the Principal, while we waited for Veronica's parent's to turn up.

We've just been checked over by the school nurse, who bandaged us up as best as she could with what she had. This basically meant we were all given an abundance of ice packs to hold over our sores. Cat's holding one on her potentially broken nose while I'm holding two, one above my left eye and the other on my stomach where I'm 90 percent sure there is some bruises forming. Either way the two of us were sat there as if we were fine, just a little uncomfortable. Veronica on the other hand, she's was an emotional wreck beside us. Admittedly, I did beat her up pretty bad and she's definitely got a broken nose, but the amount of ice packs she has around her torso is a little ridiculous, at most she has one broken rib. "Will you shut up?!" Cat snapped at Veronica.

"I'm in pain!" Veronica sobbed. "My back hurts, and my stomach and-"

"You're talking to the pregnant girl!" Cat yelled. "My back's been hurting for months!"

"It was your choice to get pregnant, I didn't ask to get beaten up." Veronica replied.

"Are you really that stupid?!" I interrupted. "Or do you really believe your own rumours that much?" I lowered my voice dramatically. "She was raped, she didn't ask for anything." I saw Cat stiffen out of the corner of my eye.

"No one else is around, there's no need to keep up the act." She replied dumbly.

"If you don't shut up," I growled "the pain you're feeling will only get worse."

"You're going to get what you deserve for this." Veronica grumbled, adjusting the ice pack on her nose.

"Veronica!" A screechy voice can from behind us. I snapped my head back to see a woman approaching us with a man in tow. "Oh sweetie what happened to you?"

"Is that her mother?" Cat whispered to me, looking at the lady behind us.

"I guess so." I whispered back. The lady looked as if she were way too young to have a teenage daughter, but that might have been because of the copious amounts of plastic surgery. Her hair was the same bleached-blonde as her daughter and the white skin of her face looks too tight. Her lips had been fattened and her eyelashes were false. She was at the point that the more effort she made to appear youthful the worse she would look. It all made sense that she was Veronica's mother.

"Did you two do this to her?" She screamed at Cat and I, pointing a finger at us. "William look what they did to your daughter!" She turned to the man behind her.

"One second Keres." He replied, adjusting the earpiece around his left ear and scrolling though his phone. He'd clearly just come from an important meeting, still smartly dressed in a suit and tie with neatly-cut, slicked back brown hair.

"Ignore your father Darling." Keres told her daughter, walking over to her to look at the damage. "Oh my gosh your nose!" She gasped before turning back to us. "We will sue you two for every dime."

"Have fun with that." I spat, turning away from her.

The principle's door opened up beside us and Mr Watson walked out. He was sixty-ish, short and chunky, with a fringe of white hair around a bald crown and a brow corrugated with wrinkles. He was strict and disciplined but he wasn't a bad man. In fact he was far from it, never without a kind smile on his face, until today. Today, he looked sympathetically at us through a pair of thick-lensed, black-ribboned glasses, a slight sad twinkle in his eyes. "You must be Mr and Mrs Nerezza." He addressed Veronica's parents.

"Yes." Keres replied bluntly. "Can we hurry this up, my daughter clearly needs to see a doctor."

"Of course." Mr Watson replied, opening his office door and inviting them in. "You too girls." The three of us stood up from our chairs and followed Veronica's parents into the office, shutting the door behind us. Inside the room was a long oak desk with 7 chairs on one side and 1 on the other. Leo and Maria were sat in two of the chairs on the left side, so Cat and I joined them in the two other empty seats while the Nerezzas sat in the remaining three on the other side. "Now we're all here, let's get started." Mr Watson sighed, shuffling past us to sit on the single chair on the opposite side of the desk.

"Are we not waiting for all the parents?" William asked, removing his earpiece.

"Everyone is already here." Mr Watson spoke up.

"But there are two sets of parents, and three girls." William replied quizzically.

"Both Jade and Cat are our daughters." Maria said, making a warm feeling flush though my body momentarily over being called their daughter.

"Both of them? That says something about you." I heard Keres mutter.

"I presume you know the situation." Mr Watson said to Veronica's parents. "I've just had a brief discussion with Mr and Mrs Valentine, and they both know the consequences of today."

"Their daughters will be jailed for assault right?" William said.

"Not quite." Mr Watson replied. "Placing charges would not be advisable." I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding at this point.

"'Not advisable'?" Keres screeched. "They beat up my daughter, I want them to get what they deserve!"

"You do understand that, at most Jade would receive a few months, however Veronica would be placed in jail for years." Mr Watson said, I couldn't help but smirk at hearing this.

"Years?" William yelled, slamming his hand into the desk in front of him. "Those two-" He pointed at Cat and I "-barley have a scratch on them, Veronica's nose is deformed!"

"Your daughter assaulted and harmed a pregnant girl, and threatened to kill her unborn child." Mr Watson said bluntly. "That's much more serious than a broken nose."

"What?" Keres spoke up. "She did no such thing."

"Would you like to watch the evidence?" Watson picked up a remote from his desk and pointed it to a small TV on the back wall beside him. Without waiting for a response, he turned on the screen allowing the black and white CCTV footage to appear. The image of Veronica stood with her foot placed on Cat's baby bump made my blood boil, but at the same time a smirk was forming on my face as I saw Veronica's parent's face's drop.

"She's pregnant?" I hear Keres mutter. "I just thought she was fat."

"First of all how dare you!" Leo started, speaking up for the first time in a while.

"It's not worth it." Maria said calmly. I think it was more for own own sake than for Leo's in all honesty.

"Now what Jade did was also not okay, so not all the blame is on Veronica." Mr Watson spoke up, turning off the TV. "However, in the eyes of the law her assault was worse and therefore I have punished the girls accordingly." I took a deep breath in as I watched him talk, whatever he says next could shape my life forever. "Jade, you will receive a 3 day expulsion from Miami High."

"THREE DAYS?!" Keres yelled. I could barely hear her though, my head was just spinning too much. Expelled. I'm expelled, this isn't good. But it's only 3 days, so I guess it could be worse. "She should be gone! I do not want my daughter in the same school as her!"

"That won't be a problem as Veronica will be permanently expelled, starting today." The reactions of Veronica's parent's was past priceless, and I could hear Leo behind me trying to stifle a laugh. "You have an hour to collect your things before you are no longer allowed to return to this school." Mr Watson continued, talking directly to Veronica.

"I understand." Veronica muttered, overwhelming shocked by everything.

"What about her?" William spoke up, pointing at Cat. "What did she get?!"

"For what?" I asked. "Being punched in the face?"

Mr Watson subtly nodded at me before continuing. "After reviewing the video, it has been decided that Cat didn't do anything wrong, and therefore will not be punished."

* * *

Cat POV

After leaving school, my parent's drove us to the hospital to get us checked over. I swear, that car ride contained the longest and most intense lecture that I had ever received in my life. Luckily, the hospital was only 10 minutes away, but the hour wait in A&E gave my parent's more than enough time to say everything they wanted to. It was quite amusing in some respects though over how sporadic their points were. From yelling at Jade for fighting and then automatically thanking her for protecting me, to telling us how we should have told them about Veronica bullying me and then laughing at the prank we pulled.

At the hospital Jade and I were both given some quick x-rays. Jade's managed to get out of it all with just bruising while my nose is fractured, not too badly though so I'm lucky there. I also had an ultrasound for the baby to make sure Veronica didn't somehow hurt him, and luckily everything was fine and he was progressing well.

When we got home, the whole gang were waiting for us, gathered in the lounge. "Cat!" Tori yelled as soon as I'd walked though the door. "Oh Babe, why didn't you tell me this was happening at school?"

"I just.. I don't know." I replied, rubbing the bridge of my plastered up nose. " _'Cause you haven't spoken to me in a week."_ I thought to myself.

"I hate that I haven't been there for you." She pulled me into a tight hug.

"It's not your fault." I replied.

"I've booked tomorrow off of work for you." She smiled. "So I'll be at school."

"Really?" I beamed.

"Really." She replied.


	41. Chapter 41

A week later (Day 200)

Cat POV

This last week has been surprisingly good. Everyone at school's been ignoring me, and I can't stress how much I appreciate it; my nose still kills, but I don't have to wear that stupid plaster on it anymore at least; but above all, the best part has been Tori and how much time we've been able to spend together over the last week. It doesn't sound like much, but she's managed to come to school 3 days since my fight, it sucks that she still had to go to work straight afterwards but I really liked seeing her during the day.

Today however, she did have to go into work and miss school. That sucks, but I guess I should be used to it by now. "These jeans are really tight on me." I muttered to myself, walking into the house and heading to the basement. As I walked down the stairs to the basement, I started to undo said jeans, bursting into my bedroom. "Tori! You're back early." I beamed as I saw my girlfriend sat in front of the piano writing into a small notebook.

"Hey Babe." She smiled at me, placing down the notebook. "Yeah, I needed to finish some lyrics and I thought I'd get more inspiration here."

"Kay kay." I beamed again, just happy she was home. My eyes glanced to the bass side of the piano where a small wooden photo frame was balanced on it, with the picture from my 20 week ultrasound nestled inside. "When'd you get this?" I gasped, picking up the frame and looking at the image of white, grey and black shapes which was my baby.

"I ordered it online," She replied, "he's helping me write lyrics."

I placed the frame back onto the piano and perched on the edge on the bed, on the closest side to her and the piano. "Can I hear it?"

"It's not finished yet, I need to sort out some of the technical-"

"Just play it." I cut in impatiently.

 **(Song: 'Capri' by Colbie Caillat. Lyrics have been edited slightly from the original such as a baby name change.)**

She cleared her throat before singing and playing the block chords on the piano.

 _"She's got a baby inside_

 _And holds her belly tight all through the night_

 _Just so she knows he's sleeping so_

 _Safely to keep him growing_

 _Oh, when he'll open his eyes there'll be no surprise_

 _He'll grow to be so beautifully_

 _Just like his mother_

 _That's carrying_

 _Oh Louie_

 _He's beauty_

 _Baby inside she's loving_

 _Oh Louie_

 _He's beauty_

 _He is an angel growing peacefully_

 _Oh Louie_

 _Sweet baby_

 _Things will be hard at times_

 _But I've learned to try_

 _Just listening patiently_

 _Oh Louie_

 _Sweet baby_

 _Oh Louie_

 _He's beauty_

 _Baby inside she's loving_

 _Oh Louie_

 _You're beauty_

 _Just like your mother_

 _That's carrying_

 _Oh Louie."_

I felt every happy emotion at once as she sung, completely flipping my day from a panic-ridden one to one of the happiest of my life. It wasn't just how her voice soothed me, but the words that went with it and how they were about the baby and I. I looked up at her and saw her eyes staring into mine, awaiting my reaction to her song. "That was amazing." I said in awe.

"Really?" Tori said, her shoulder's lifting along with her smile. "It's so much different than my other songs, I was worried-"

"Shh." I whispered, placing a finger on her lips. "I loved it." We sat there, looking intensely at each other for a few moments. "How did you know I liked that name?" I asked, realising I'd yet to tell her it.

"You talk in your sleep sometimes." She admitted, giggling to herself. "That's what you always call him."

"Do you like that name?" I asked, trying to hide my blush.

"It's perfect." Tori replied, leaning forward and lightly pressing her lips against mine. "I'm so sorry I've been neglecting you both over the last few months."

"I keep telling you it's not your fault Babe." I smiled back.

"I know, but I need to make it up to you." She sighed.

"Then stay more." I spoke up, it was a long shot but maybe it would work. "This week's been so great, I've missed it."

"I'll try."

"Me too." Tori said, standing up from the piano chair and sitting beside me on the bed.

"You know what else I've missed?" I smirked slightly, twisting my body to face her and placing my hand on her collar bone.

"What?" She replied, fauxing ignorance.

"This." I lent forward and kissed her. Not innocently, like a tease but hot, fiery, passionate and demanding. Our lips battled for dominance until I pushed Tori backwards onto the bed. I crawled on top of her as we continued to kiss, my bump accidentally pressing against her body. We continued to to kiss each other for a few minutes before I felt a strong kick in my stomach from the baby. Tori suddenly burst into laughter, making me pull always and sit upright, straddling her lap. "What?" I spoke up.

"I know I just killed the moment." She giggled. "But I felt the baby kick me though you."

"Really?" I giggled. "It's weird right."

"It kinda tickled." She replied. "Our little Louie." She continued, placing her hands on my baby bump.

"Little Louie." I repeated. "It's not long till he gets here."

"You're only 27 weeks along, so I hope it's not that soon." She said back.

"You know what I meant." I retorted.


	42. Chapter 42

A month later, Day 227 (October 1st)

Tori kept her word, promising to spend more time with Cat for the sake of their baby and their relationship. Or course, she did still have to work, but through a lot of persuasion she'd managed to cut down her schedule to working on every 3rd day, rather than practically every day like before. Because of Tori's less hectic working times, the girl's relationship was very much on the bend. Also, with Beck now finished filming, Jade had also been able to spend a lot more time with her boyfriend. As a result, both girls were significantly happier and more pleasant to be around (according to Robbie at least). However, now that Jade and Beck were talking again, they were now also fighting again. Just like how they used to. All couples fight, and Jade and Beck were no different, especially after a day of school where multiple girls thought it would be a good idea to flirt with Beck.

Apart from Cat, who was in the lounge watching TV, the couple was home alone and in the middle of a screaming match in their bedroom. Maria, Leo and Raffa, were all at work; Robbie was out on a walk to get away from Jade and Beck's yelling (though he didn't tell them that); and Andre and Tori were staying behind at school to try and catch up on some of the classwork they'd missed in the last few months. Getting sick of the noise herself, Cat turned off the TV and stormed down the hallway toward's her friend's bedroom.

 **(A/N I'm using their fight from 'The Worst Couple' Episode as inspiration here, so I'll probably use a similar script. Don't hate, it's 1am so I'm too tired to be creative right now XD.)**

"Guys?" Cat knocked on the door.

Beck opened the door and quickly used this to his advantage. "We need your opinion on us, don't you think Jade and I fight a lot?" He said, his voice still in a half-yelled tone from fighting with Jade.

"Sure." Cat replied uncomfortably, very much regretting walking into the room.

"Yeah, but all boyfriends and girlfriends fight a lot, don't they?" Jade cut in.

"Well, sometimes, but..." Cat stammered, trying to back out of the room.

"Yes or no?!" Jade screamed suddenly, pulling Cat forward again.

"Ah!" Cat squeaked.

"Let her talk!" Beck commanded Jade.

"You never listen to me talk!" Jade countered, in an equally loud tone.

"Can I go now?" Cat asked meagerly, her head spinning suddenly.

"No!" Jade yelled, pulling Cat closer again. "What is your point here anyway?!" Jade directed to Beck.

"I would like to have a girlfriend I can talk to. Without it turning into a screaming match." Beck replied honestly.

"Yeah? Well I'd like a boyfriend. Who other girls don't stare and flirt with at all the time!" Jade snapped.

"I don't feel so great." Cat mumbled, her voice buried under the force of the two other's screaming.

"How is it my fault girls stare at me?" Beck yelled again, continuing the fight, unaware of Cat's discomfort.

"You could look worse if you wanted to!" Jade retorted, unaware of Cat who had her hands pressed over her ears and was mumbling something to herself, her breathing fast and deep.

"I can't believe how jealous you get!" Beck yelled at his girlfriend.

"Oh, oh, so you think I'm ugly?!" Jade snapped.

"Wh... ?! Who said... Did I say she was ugly?!" Beck stammered out, looking at Cat for reassurance that he wasn't the only one thinking what Jade said was totally random and uncalled for.

"No, Cat thinks we're a perfect couple!" Jade snapped, looking at Cat but somehow missing the girl stumbling back into the wall.

"Cat, are Jade and I a perfect couple?!" Beck growled.

"Don't answer that!"

"Answer it!"

"Say nothing!"

"C'mon!"

"You c'mon?!" The two continued to screamingly at each other.

"Guys..." Cat whisper-spoke, as her body was now completely pressed against the wall.

"WHAT?!" Jade yelled at Cat, forgetting to switch her tone.

"M...my water just broke." She stuttered out.

The two other teens simply looked at her wide eyed, and then down to the puddle of water on the floor below Cat. All thoughts of an argument disappeared as all their attention went towards their distressed friend.

"Holy shit." She gasped. "But you're only 31 weeks, that's too early."

"Don't you think I don't know that!" Cat snapped back in pure panic.

"I'll get a towel." Beck cut in, rushing into the en-suite and grabbed one of the navy towels, before turning back and placing it on the bed for Cat.

"Thanks." Cat replied though clenched teeth, Jade helping her to sit down on top of the towel. "Call... Tori. And Mamma and Papa."

"I've gotta set up your hospital bag." Jade replied. "Beck, do it."

"I'll do it." Cat said between breaths, attempting to stand back up.

"No, you're going to stay there." Jade snapped, rushing out of the room and down the stairs to the nursery to grab various things that Cat would need for the hospital from the nursery.

"I'll call Maria and Leo." Beck said in panic, grabbing his phone from his back pocket and fumbling with the buttons. "Come on, answer" He mumbled as the phone buzzed.

"And Tori-ah!" Cat winced as as stomach manged to somehow tighten even more.

"And Tori." Beck repeated, putting the phone to his ear as it buzzed.

Downstairs in the nursery, Jade's head was spinning as she stuffed everything Cat would need into a bag. Her and Beck's stupid quarrel had just sent Cat into an early labour. The baby was in danger because of her. Cat was in danger because of her. "Don't cry Jade." She told herself, quickly wiping away the tears that were forming in her eyes. Quickly making sure she had everything Cat would need, she shut the bag and hauled it over her shoulder, heading back up the stairs to her bedroom.

"How're you feeling Cat?" Beck checked, still waiting for Leo to answer the phone.

"How'd you think?!" Cat yelled, her stomach still painfully tight.

"This is happening way too fast." Jade mumbled to herself as she walked back into the room.

"Leo's not replying." Beck said, pulling down the phone and leaving him a message. "I'll try Maria next."

"I'll call Tori then." Jade said, clicking the in the half-latina's number in her phone.

"I swear contraction shouldn't be this painful this early." Cat winced. "Or this long."

"They shouldn't." Jade mumbled, hearing Tori's voice on the phone. "Thank God, Vega get your arse to the hospital ASAP..." She paused as Tori replied. "Of course everything's not okay, that's why I'm telling you to go to the hospital! Cat's in labour you idiot! I'm about to take her there now okay? Be there soon please." She ended the call to help Cat out.

"That was mean." Cat told her.

"Oh come on, she deserved that. I swear if she was twice as smart, she'd still be stupid." Jade shook her head.

"Not the time for that." Cat replied quickly.

"Maria?" Beck spoke into his phone as Cat's mom answered his call. "You need to meet us at the hospital, Cat's in labour." His phone suddenly irrupted with the noise of very loud quick-talking Italian.

"Can you turn your phone off of speaker?" Jade snapped.

"It's not on speaker." Beck sighed, Maria's voice was still loud enough to hear thought out the room. "We're about to take her to the hospital, get there when you can." And with that he ended the call.

"Come on." Jade said, hoisting the hospital bag onto her shoulder and helping Cat to her feet. "Let's get you to the hospital, driving will be faster than waiting for an ambulance." She explained.

After helping Cat up the stairs and into backseats the car, Beck and Jade climbed in the front seats and started to drive her to the hospital. "MOVE YOUR CAR FASTER!" Jade yelled at the slow driver in front of them on the road, slamming her hand into the car horn. "Oh for-" She muttered, pulling onto the other side of the road to overtake them.

"DAMN!" Beck yelled as he life seemingly flashed before his eyes as they overtook the other car.

"You alright back there Cat?" Jade said, ignoring Beck's reaction.

"Uhuh." Cat replied, her expression of discomfort telling a different story.

"We'll be there soon." Jade replied, stopping the car at a red light. "Apparently not if all these things keep stopping us!" She grumbled under her breath.

* * *

The hospital was somewhere the teens knew all too well, seemingly being there a lot. First there was the weeks they spent being moved between hospital like buildings after crossing the border, then Robbie's asthma appointment, followed by Cat's ultrasound scan session, and then finally Jade and Cat having to get x-rays after the fight with Veronica. By this point, they wouldn't be surprised if the doctors knew them by name.

Straight after walking through the main entrance Cat was given a wheelchair by a nurse and the three teens were lead to the maternity ward. Beck had chosen to sit in the waiting room while Jade stayed with Cat for emotional support until Tori and her parent's came.

"You're 8cm Dilated." The midwife told Cat after she'd been changed into a hospital gown, laid on the bed, and hooked up monitoring machines. "How long ago did you say her waters broke?" She asked Jade.

"About 15 minutes ago." Jade replied, looking at the time on her phone.

"That is very fast then." The midwife mumbled under her breath. "Is there anything that could have onset this? Such as a stressful situation." She asked Jade.

Jade felt herself go paler than normal as guilt flushed though her body. "I was fighting with my boyfriend-" She explained. "-and Cat kinda got in the middle."

"Can I get some pain relief?" Cat interrupted, cringing as another contraction started.

"I'm sorry dear." The midwife shook her head. "Your labour is happening too fast, by the time it takes effect, the baby will have been born."

"Great." Cat grumbled, the pain growing.

"It'll be okay Cat." Jade comforted, holding onto Cat's left hand as her discomfort grew.

With each contraction came a pain that dominated Cat's entire being. In those moments, for those seconds that stretched into infinity, there was nothing. It felt like someone was reaching inside her and pulling her guts out with their bare hands, yet she made no sound at all. When the pain passed it was only for a minute or so and she breathed with closed eyes, unwilling to re-engage with life outside of her own body. The room might as well have been empty for all the awareness she had, and when Jade or midwife the did talk, touch, gain her attention she found it so hard to reply as she had to find herself from the deepest recess of her own mind and drag herself forward to use her voice. Through the blurred noise around her, Cat could bluntly make out that the midwife was telling her that is was time, time to push. "No." Cat replied feebly. "I.. I need Tori."

"You're at 10cm Dear." The midwife replied. "You need to push."

Jade squeezed Cat's hand for comfort as another contraction flooded over her body. With a guttural grunt Cat did what she was told and until she had to stop. Her breathing was quick and shallow and her vision was still spinning. "T...tori." She mumbled, needing her girlfriend with her.

"She's coming Cat, I promise." Jade replied.

"Cat!" The two girls and the midwife snapped their necks toward the door to see the half-Latina stood there, seemingly as out of breath as her girlfriend. "I'm here Cat, I'm here."

"Tori." Cat replied weakly, a smile forming on her face as Tori rushed to the side of her bed.

"I'll go wait with Beck." Jade spoke up. "You're doing great Cat." She gave Cat's hand a final squeeze before allowing for Tori to take up her position.

"How is she?" Tori asked the midwife.

"10cm dilated." She informed quickly. "She needs to push at her next contraction."

"So any later and I'd have missed it?" Tori gulped, holding one of Cat's hands between her own.

"Unfortunately, yes." The midwife replied simply. As she was talking, a second midwife walked into the room, this one with a blanket in her arms for the baby once it was born.

"Ah." Cat gasped quietly as another contraction started.

"You need to push." The first midwife spoke up. Cat's face twisted awkwardly as she started to push again, her hand tightening around Tori's in a way that made the half-Latina squeal out in pain. Cat felt the baby crowning, the hot stretching of flesh and she held her breath. But she couldn't continue pushing, so her muscles relaxed as she collapsed against the bed. "Keep going." The nurse urged.

"I can't." Cat mumbled, her vision more blurred than ever and her mind as far away from focus as humanly possible. The room could have suddenly disappeared and Cat would be none the wiser, her vision only allowing for the bright white light of the ceiling.

"Come on Babe." Tori encouraged, rubbing her thumb around the back of Cat's hand comfortingly.

"Okay...okay." Cat whimpered. Tori looked down at her as she took the end of her sleeve and to wipe away some of the sweat brimming on Cat's forehead. She watched as Cat closed her eyes and breathlessly tried to talk, placing her hand behind Cat's head to help sit her up as she took a deep breath and used every last ounce of her energy to push again. "AHHHHH!" Cat yelled out for the first time since laying in the bed, so high pitch that it might have been able to break glass if there were any in the room. She used all of her remaining effort to push the baby out and into the hands of the midwife.

There was elation, and there he was, nascent eyes opening, lungs screaming out. "Congratulations." The second midwife said, wiping the baby with a small blanket. "A little boy." Tori reached out to bring the baby to Cat, however she never even got a solid look at their baby. Instead the umbilical cord was cut and the midwife rushed him out of the room. "Wh-" Tori started trying to say, shock taking over.

"He's being taken to the NICU as he's premature." The other midwife explained quickly.

The room went dead silent apart from the sound of Cat's heart rate monitor beeping every second or so, each one reverberating around the room like a cymbal. _Beep...beep...beep_. The noise was getting slower, but the buzzing of the previous moments meant that no one was really paying attention to it. _Beep... ...beep... ...beep_. Tori started to notice at this point, snapping her head back to her girlfriend who was laying still on the bed, her breathing low and her eyes still clamped shut. "Cat?" Tori said quietly, tightly grasping her girlfriend's hand and waiting for a response. _Beep... ...beep... ...beeeeeeee_. "CAT!" Tori screamed, the continuous beep of a flat-lining heart echoing around the room, drilling into Tori's skull.

The midwife shot across the room and frantically started to press the 'call' button. "I knew it was happening too fast." She muttered to herself.

"Too fast?!" Tori yelled, her mind racing. "What's happening?!"

"The labour was too fast." The midwife replied quickly. "It's sent her into a sudden cardiac arrest."

"A... a what?" Tori's mouth went dry as felt the panic begin like a cluster of spark plugs in her abdomen. The thoughts were accelerating inside her head.

The room spun as three doctors rushed into the room to assess the situation. After quickly talking to the midwife, one doctor rushed back out of the room while the another grabbed a bag valve mask from a cupboard, placing it on Cat's face.

"What's happening?" Tori spoke up, tears falling down her cheeks, the sound of Cat's flat-lined heart still battering itself against her eardrums.

"Ma'am you need to leave." The unoccupied doctor said while the one who left reappeared, wheeling a defibrillator though the door and beside Cat's bed.

"Leave?!" Tori yelled in distress.

"Yes, I'm sorry." The doctor replied, physically pushing Tori out of the room. The last thing she saw was a man yelling 'Clear!' as he pressed two iron-like objects onto Cat's unconscious frame.

Tori was white as chalk. Her eyes and her mouth were frozen wide open in an expression of stunned surprise, her body stuck in it's place outside Cat's hospital room. The paralyzing hurt spread through her body like icy, liquid metal. She noticed her feet tremble. Her legs twitched, fighting the impulse to whirl around and burst back into the room. But reality started to tap its way into her marching brain's rhythm. Cat might not wake up and there was nothing she could do. She was helpless. That was all.

Eventually, she turned, but too slowly to be normal. Blinking a few times cleared up her vision, and she slowly and robotically walked down the corridor and into the waiting room. "Tori." Jade spoke up. She was sat on the end of a row of chairs, Maria and Leo beside her (Andre had come to take Beck back home so that there weren't too many people there for Cat.) "Everything went okay, right?"

"Uh..." When she spoke her voice trailed slowly, like her words were unwilling to take flight. "She..." She started again, unable to continue. It was obvious to the others that something was wrong though the sadness in her eyes, the brown too glossy.

"What happened?" Leo said, his voice cold.

"The baby..." Tori started, taking a deep breath. "Was taken away."

"He was born early Tori." Maria tried to comfort, thinking that was the worst of it. "We expected that."

Tori shook her head, trying to blink back the tears. "Then... Cat's... Cat's heart. It stopped."

"What?" Jade said, her voice so quiet that it was barely audible. All guilt from how Cat was sent into early labour flooding over her again.

"It.. it." Tori tried to say before suddenly, her body wracked with raw sobs and she shook like a leaf. Worry consumed every cell in her body, swelling them with panic. With every second she practically felt the rise of her blood pressure, but she knew that this was the least of her problems. Leo had to catch her in his arms to stop her from falling to the floor. The waiting room was deafeningly silent at this point, every over occupant looking at them in sympathy. The other waiting parents-to-be silently praying to themselves that their fate wouldn't be the same. "They took the baby, and it stopped." Tori choked out. "Doctors... they came in and... used a defib."

Leo continued to hold Tori in his arms as his wife started to choke up with tears too. He held both women tightly in a hug as they cried. Jade on the other hand was too shocked to let any tears fall, so she walked over to the reception desk and started to talk to the receptionist. "I need to know about the Valentine baby." She demanded.

"What's the relation?" The receptionist asked, typing the details into the computer.

"The mother's sister." Jade replied, too exhausted to be bothered to go though the whole 'no family relations' thing.

"He's just been checked into the NICU. It's too early for visitations yet unfortunately." he said quickly.

"Thanks." Jade replied, slightly angered over the lack of new information.

"Is he okay at least?" Tori asked Jade.

"They don't know." Jade replied sourly.

"So I could have lost them both?" Tori said quietly, her body still shaking.

"No." Maria shook her head. "Don't think like that Tori. They're both okay, I promise."

"I hope so." The group all sat back down on the plastic chairs, silence engulfing them, like a void. A dark void. A never ending dark void that consumes everything, so your left feeling nothing. Empty. Nothing to subside your hollow soul that creeps in the shadows, away from any other human life because it's emptiness is so consuming it cannot bare to pretend that everything is okay. Nothing was okay, Cat wasn't okay. And to them, that was worse than anything else.

* * *

After a painful half an hour of waiting, a very sour looking doctor walking into the room. The group were praying profusely that the doctor only had that expression because he working a long shift, and not because he had back news to deliver. "Are you the family of Caterina Valentine?" He asked, looking at the couple and two teens.

"Yes." Leo nodded. "I'm her father."

"Your daughter is stable." The doctor replied, the whole ground consecutively let out a sigh of relief after receiving the news. "The baby is also stable in the NICU, and once Caterina is awake, he will be temporarily moved to her room."

"Thank you." Leo said, shaking the doctor's hand. "Can we visit her?"

"Of course, but she is currently still asleep." The doctor informed. "Follow this map to her room." He handed Leo a map of the hospital, with a drawn-on circle on the Coronary Care Unit, where heart attack patients are looked after.

Tori and Jade nodded, thanking the doctor also, before following Leo and Maria to Cat's room. Inside was another doctor, stood with the posture of a soldier. Every action she took was precise and purposeful. She smiled in the cold and distant way professionals do. Her eyes were devoid of any make-up and her hair was in a tight bun, not a strand out of place. She was stood beside Cat's bed, quickly checking her vitals and such, blocking the visitor's vision of the girl. "Press the call button once she wakes up, or if anything seems abnormal." She weakly smiled to them again before stepping out of the way and leaving the room for their privacy.

"Oh Cat." Tori gasped, looking her girlfriend unconscious on the bed, a breathing mask covering half of her face, a IV tube suck into her arm, and a beeping heart rate monitor beside her.

"Bambina!" Maria blurted out, rushing to her daughter's bedside. The other three quickly followed, standing or sitting by Cat's bedside.

"This is all my fault." Jade stammered, her face still paler than normal.

"Stop blaming yourself." Leo interrupted, knowing the story from Jade telling him whilst in the waiting room. "You didn't know."

"But I... but." Jade stuttered.

"Stop." Tori interrupted. "No one else is blaming you okay? So just stop it." Silenced by Tori's harshness, Jade clamped her mouth shut and focused fully on Cat, continuing the wait for her eyes to open.


	43. Chapter 43

Cat POV

W...what happened to me? I feel numb and dizzy. Why can't I open my eyes? Why does Tori sound sad? What's happened?

I can feel someone's hand on my left one, I think it's my Mom's 'cause I can feel the cold metal of her rings against my skin. Lightly, I tried squeezing it. "She moved!" I hear my Mom squeal, I was right then I guess but why is she so excited about me moving? I moved my hand slightly again and I felt her squeeze back, so with all my remaining effort, I slowly started opening my eyes. Now I know why she's excited. I'm in hospital.

"Cat!" I heard Tori blurt out on my right side.

"H...i" I said, the lack of power behind my voice scaring me. I looked up around me and saw my parents on my left and Tori and Jade on my right. Reaching up to my mouth to see what was covering it and felt a plastic bubble, darting my eyes down I could kinda make out that it was a mask.

"That's helping you breathe." My dad said calmly. "You don't really need it, but it's better to leave it on."

"What... happened?" I asked.

"Your heart stopped." Tori gulped. "After the baby was born."

"My... what?" I tried to sit upright, but pain shot through me. "And born? When?" After collapsing back down onto the bed, I placed my hands on my stomach which was seriously less bloated than before. "That's a weird feeling." I mumbled.

"About 40 minutes ago." Tori answered, I could see in her eyes that it was hard for her to talk about. "The birth was too fast and the shock and exertion stopped your heart."

"Wh..where is he?" I asked, the memories rushing back into my mind, my breath hitched in my throat. "He's okay right? Please say yes."

"He's doing okay." My mom replied, her thumb rubbing against the back of my hand. "He's in the NICU, but the doctor said they could bring him up once you're awake."

"Which you are now." Jade spoke up, leaning across to press the 'call' button on the wall.

* * *

A nurse just came in, checked me over quickly and took off my breathing mask. "You seem to be recovering well." She told me. "But I doubt you'll be discharged for a few days, just for safety reasons."

"As long as I can see my baby today, I'm happy." I replied honestly as she was checking if my heart beat was consistent.

"I'll call for him to be brought up here now seeings as you're doing well." She smiled at me, before leaving the room.

A few minutes later, the nurse came into the room wheeling an incubator. Inside it was possibly the smallest baby I've ever seen. He was loosely curled up inside, with a cannula inside his little nose, a tube running into his mouth, and various little sensors placed onto his body. "Here he is." The nurse smiled. "3 pounds and 12 ounces, 18 inches long. About 45 minutes old."

"He's beautiful." Tori gasped, standing closer to the incubator as the nurse plugged it into the wall.

"He's a very deep sleeper." She chuckled. "Only been awake for about 10 minutes since his birth."

"You were the same as a baby." Maria reminisced to her daughter.

"Does he have a name yet?" The nurse asked.

"Yes." I replied. "Louis Jaden Valentine-Vega."

"What a lovely name." The Nurse smiled at me, stepping back to give us the alone time, but staying in the room encase I need help.

"Valentine-Vega?" Tori said, her jaw practically on the ground. It suddenly hit me that I'd yet to clear the name by her first.

"You deserve for your name to be a part of his." I replied, reaching my arm into the hole in the side of the incubator and beside his small body. His tiny fingers started to curl around my pinky. I watch the newborn peer through brand new eyes at what must be such a strange world after life in the womb. His legs kick in a tiny jagged motion, looking for that resistance they are used to I guess, but finding nothing but air. I wonder if that's unsettling or a relief, it must have been pretty cramped in there. When he stretches his hands barely rise above his head and I think of how strange we'd all look if we kept those body proportions as we grew.

"Would you like to pick him up?" The nurse asked.

"Can I?" I replied, feeling my eyes light up.

"Of course." She nodded, opening the top of the incubator as I sat upright slightly. "Skin-to-skin is good for him." She reached into the incubator, careful as to not disconnect any of the tubes on him, and picked him up. Straight away, he began to fret and cry. While pregnant I was worried over annoying that was going to be, but it's so cute I almost cry. This is a new person, and I'm already filling up with love for him.

I slightly pulled down the neck line of my hospital gown so that the nurse could lower him onto my bare chest. As soon as Louie made contact, the crying stopped. I felt a slight pang in my heart over how vulnerable he looked, not only because of his size but also the tubes attached to him and the little pads on his chest. "Hey Louie." I said quietly, he fully opened his big brown eyes looked up at me. "Tori." I gasped. "Look." The colour was a dark hickory as rich as the earth's soil; stained with the colour of hot chocolate on a cold, winter night that wraps around you like a blanket; engulfing you in its warmth and makes you feel at home. But above all, they were familiar to me. Very familiar.

"Brown?" Tori said to herself. "That's really rare in caucasian babies, isn't it?"

"It is." My mom confirmed. "They're normally born blue and turn brown as the baby ages, but it is possible."

"These ones are definitely brown." I spoke up, looking into his deep brown eyes. "But they aren't like mine." I thought back to one of the first nights at Wanko's and tried to mentally recall Dean's eyes. It took all my power to not start to hyperventilating as his face came back into my mind, including his dark blue eyes. _Blue_ , not brown. Thank God Louie didn't have Dean's eyes. But that begged the question, who's eyes did they remind me of then?

"You're right." Tori added, looking between my eyes and Louie's. "Yours are a caramel brown, Louie's are almost black.

"Holy shit, they're like Vega's." Jade interrupted. "How is that even possible?"

"Young ears are listening now Jadelyn." Mom reminded sternly, but I was too focused at the shocking similarities between Tori and Louie's eyes.

After getting over the initially confusion, I took this is a sign that Louis was definitely our baby, even if Tori had no biological connection. I slid my hand behind his little head to support it up, and he shut his eyes again, snuggling it back down into it. "He's so little." I smiled at my son's tiny frame.

"So he's got Tori's eyes, and your height." Jade cracked up.

"Your God-Mother's being mean to me Louie." I whispered to my son, rubbing my thumb lightly over the thin layer of brown hair which covered his scalp.

"God-Mother?" Jade repeated, her expression one of pure shock.

"We were going to tell you next week." Tori replied for me. "But obviously he decided to make his grand entrance now."

"So, do you want to-" I started.

"Yes! 100 percent yes!" Jade cut me off, practically bouncing up and down in her place.

"Beck would be the God-Father obviously." I added.

"I couldn't think of anyone better." She replied.

We sat there for a few minutes, just talking between ourselves while Louis was curled up on my chest, already sleeping again. Everything was completely peaceful until I felt him getting colder, at first I thought this was a big problem, but the nurse reassured me that it was purely because he was premature and not fully able to maintain his body temperature yet. However, he wasn't meant to be cold, so he had to be moved back into the incubator. It wasn't long after this when he started crying again. "I think he's hungry." My mom spoke up. At first I looked awkwardly around the room, unsure of what to do next. My dad got the hint and turned around to give me some privacy, but this is when the nurse cut in.

"He's too small to be breast fed Dear." She informed me. "Babies aren't mature enough to co-ordinate sucking, swallowing and breathing until about 32-34 weeks. Until then, he'll need to be fed though a tube."

"A tube?" I asked. "Sorry, I don't know much about all this."

"That's why I'm here." The nurse replied, washing her hands in a sink in the corner of the room before turning back to incubator and taking a little plastic syringe full of a creamy-white serum from a compartment underneath where he was laying. She connected the syringe to the end of the tube that was in Louie's mouth, and slowly pushed down the plunger. The little slurps and gulps just made my heart melt, even when he was eating, he was just so adorable. I reached my hand towards Tori's and interlocked my fingers around hers while Louie ate. "It's that simple." The nurse said once Louie was finished. "I'm sure you could do it for tomorrow's breakfast feed in the morning."

"Was that his dinner feed?" I asked, and the nurse nodded. "Wait, what's the time?"

"7:30." My mom replied, looking at the time on her clock.

"You all need to go home and eat." I told them.

"I'm not leaving until you get discharged." Tori said stubbornly.

"Fine." I sighed, too tired to fight back. "But I'm getting a little tired."

"I'm not surprised." My Dad chuckled. "You've had quiet a day."

* * *

Half way through the night (Still Cat POV)

Eleven o'clock morphs into twelve and then one. The time trickles by, marked the hands on the clock beside me. My mind is blank; where there should be dreams is a heavy blackness. My eyes are as stationary as the silhouette of the plastic chair bedside my bed, which is where they rest. My mind flickered to the call buttons, where I could ask for sleeping pills to help my restless mind. I don't want them, I don't want chemicals. I close my eyes and they almost sting, open too long I guess.

It's impossible to fall asleep right now. Everything below my waist hurts from giving birth, and there's a numbing pain in my chest by my heart. Add onto it that there a contentious repeated 'beep' of my heart rate monitor beside me, and your have the formula for a restless night sleep. That is unless you're Tori, who somehow managed to convince the doctors to allow her to stay the night. She was curled up on the hospital bed beside me, making it very cramped in all honesty. I don't know how she's sleeping, even without her being in pain like I am, surely her mind must be spinning over wondering if Louie is okay.

I think back to what my Mom told me before she left, " _Get as much sleep as you can now, because once Louie's home he'll be keeping you awake all night_ ". She's right, I know she is, but right now all I want to do is get out of this bed to go see him and make sure he's okay.

Slowly I tried to sit up but quickly realized how futile it was when I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out. Sharp pain lanced through my body and colorful spots flashed in front of my eyes, it felt like my whole body had been beaten and every movement caused some muscle or bone to ache. Regardless, I needed to get out of here and go see Louie.

"Cat?" I heard Tori say from beside me on the bed, lightly rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah?" I replied through clenched teeth, resting my body weight on my elbows in a half-sit-up position.

"What're you doing? You need to stay laid down." She lightly put her hand on my chest and pushed me back down onto the bed.

"Ah!" I whimpered again as her hand was pressed on my left side, by my heart.

"Oh shoot." She gasped, quickly removing her hand from me.

"It's okay." I sighed, pushing myself up again. "No harm done."

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"To see Louie." I replied bluntly, slowly swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.

"You can't." She said, trying to pull me back onto the bed. "You're not meant to get up yet."

"Tough." I grumbled, pulling the heart rate monitor finger sensor off of my finger and lowering my feet into the ground.

Tori jumped off of the bed beside me, realising that she couldn't stop me. "Can I at least get you a wheelchair?"

"I can walk." I replied bluntly, but after putting my body weight onto my legs, a sharp pain shot through me from my waist and chest. I tried ignoring it and walked forward, but each step just the pain amplified, my muscles quivering.

"Can you?" She raised an eyebrow at me, noting my pain.

"No." I whimpered, leaning against the wall as the pain continued.

"Come on Babe." She said calmly. "I want to see him too, but they won't let us see him until the morning. Let's go back to bed."

"But-" I tried to reply as a pain throbs in my guts, it's deep and warm, but not in a nice way. It feels like someone has their hand in there and are squeezing my organs first gently and then as hand as they can. When it wanes I can move, when it returns I can only hold still and breathe, breathe slow and deep until it has passed.

"Here." Tori held her hand out for me and helped my back onto the bed, reattaching my heart rate monitor finger sensor.

"I feel so weak." I whined as she sat me down on the bed.

"You just gave birth and had a heart attack." She reminded. "I'm surprised you're even strong enough to stand up."

As I laid down, Tori walked around to the other side of the bed and laid next to me, it was a tight fit but somehow still comfortable. She pulled my back towards her in a warm swaddle of her chest and arms. Her hand moved around my middle, warm and soft. In seconds her body was moulded to my own, sharing her body heat as easily as she shares her heart. I didn't want to leave. It felt as if when I was in her arms all my pain went away - mental and physical. "I love you." I whispered, curling up in a tighter ball as her body moulded into mine.

"I love you too." She replied.


	44. Chapter 44

Jade POV(At the house)

In the 8 hours I've been in bed I must have woken up at least five times. Not for that long each time, but enough to break my sleep into un-refreshing chunks. With every disturbance there is a new nightmare. Beck's had enough of me and left. _Cat's heart has stopped again and she's died. Something's gone wrong in the NICU and Louie's not well. A flashback to Cat's water breaking. I got kicked out of the house for starting Cat's early labour._ Each one just as dramatic and mentally scarring as the last. I want to wash my brain in cold water, chill the whole thing right out but I can't. I want a coffee but the caffeine will put me over the edge.

One second passed. Two seconds passed. Three seconds passed. Guilt is eating and pestering me. A fire burning in my mind and throat. Remorse hitting me like a sledgehammer. What's done is done and I can't undo it, so why can't this feeling leave me? This sleeplessness is my torture. While the rest of the world embraces their dreams, their eight hours of rest, I toss and turn. Beck's laying beside me, and I can't tell if his mind is spinning like mine. He's hard enough to read while awake, let alone while asleep.

I rolled over and checked the time again, like I'd done every 10 minutes or so for the past hour. Sleep is practically impossible at this point. 6:22am was displayed by the glowing numerals of my alarm clock. Sighing, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and quietly tiptoed out of the room and to the kitchen to pour myself some water, hoping the coldness would fully wake me from this limbo of tiredness.

I feel the chill of water run down my esophagus and my head makes an involuntary shake. A numbness creeps into my brain the way it did when I was a kid eating ice-cream too fast. It's the reverse of the my regular mornings, when all I want is the feel the heat of good coffee come through a thick mug. When the glass is drained I refill it and make my way into the lounge to sit down on the couch, looking aimlessly through the glass doors into the garden.

The garden itself isn't very large, just a patio that runs along the side of the house covers a few metres, and the decent sized pool is placed in the middle of the grass. I have a sudden urge to pull open the doors and dive straight into the water. If the glass I drank were enough to pull me from weariness, then maybe a pool's worth would give me enough energy to actually function today.

My eyes fall to the surface once more. I want to be in that water, under it, gliding dolphin-like to the tiles below more than my next breath. The coolness will bring me to the present like nothing else. In those perfect moments I can forget my guilt, cease to analyze the future. I wont worry about what I've done, what will happen, things that may never be. In its watery embrace there is only the peace, nothing more. Underneath the surface I can escape the dull drag of gravity. And that is why I love swimming, it is as free as I've ever experienced in my seventeen years; nothing else comes close.

I quickly grabbed the keys and unlocked the door, pulling it open and stepping outside into the garden. The early morning sun was already well risen and the autumn grass shone like it had its own gentle glow from within. The air felt refrigerated, that same coolness combined with moisture I always feel when I reached for the coffee cream. Though it was late enough for bright light, it was early enough for the streets to be almost deserted and therefore there was silence.

Slowly, I walked to the edge of the pool and dove straight in, not caring that I was still in my pyjamas. The freedom was as intoxicating as if I were swimming in vodka. I could move in any direction or even just stop and float a while. My air bubbles made their way to the surface with every exhale; they were only thing down there in a hurry to leave. I would've stayed there all day if I could, but as always my time was metered by the oxygen in my lungs. I pushed myself back above the water level, flipping my drenched hair out of my face. The peacefulness of my surroundings pouring into my soul. A relief from the of guilty burden carried on my shoulders, like a bird flying away which is now free.

* * *

Tori POV, a few hours later

The NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), also known as an intensive care nursery (ICN), is an intensive care unit specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants. This is where our son is forced to stay, and today is the first time we will see him there.

With me pushing Cat in a wheelchair, we went through the large wooden NICU doors and signed in at the registration desk before being sent into another room where we had to very thoroughly wash our hands. We then walked through another set of doors and into seemingly another planet. The room was nothing like the plain hallway before it, but instead a buzzing room with lots of activity, people moving around, and beeping monitors. Simple decoration had been scattered around the various incubators, from the newborn's parents, of pastel pinks, blues, named bunting and little toys to make the small glass enclosure feel like a personal space. I felt a slight pang of guilt for not bringing anything for Louie, but I've yet to be home since his birth so I didn't really have a choice.

We were informed that this is where babies who were at the end of their stay in the NICU were, meaning that they were all roughly '40 weeks' in pregnancy terms. A nurse lead us along past the various incubators into another long hallway with multiple private patient rooms on either side until we reached one with a chalk bored sign on the door, labeled 'Baby Valentine-Vega. 1 Day Old. Born at 31 Weeks.' The '1' before his age was newly written, showing that they update it daily. The nurse held the door open for us and I pushed Cat's chair into the room.

The interior of the room was a lot more homely than the rest of the hospital, a large sofa-bed on the far side along with a reclining chair with breast pump beside it. Louie's incubator was on the wall opposite it, surrounded by multiple wall-mounted cupboards containing everything we and the doctors would need until Louie was healthy enough to go home. "At the end of the corridor is a kitchen and family area, and connected off of that is the toilet and shower facilities." The nurse explained. "This is for you two when you need a break, cook and eat meals, or to meet other families. It's encouraged for you to spend as much time as possible with your baby to help his development."

"I couldn't even thinking about leaving him." Cat cut in, pulling her chair close beside Louie's incubator.

"Everything in here is private." The nurse continued. "Apart from the camera up there-" she pointed to a small CCTV camera in the corner -"which is purely for doctors to periodically check up on you and the baby."

"Okay." I said, not really listening to what she was saying as my eyes were rested on our son.

"Here is a list of timings and specialised instructions for your son." She handed me a piece of paper with lots of tiny writing on it. "Press the call button is you have any questions." And with that she left, closing the wooden door behind her, sealing us in the sound-proof room.

"Do you want me to hand him to you?" I asked Cat, noting that she was longing staring into Louie's incubator.

"Are we allowed?" She asked.

I nodded in response, pointing to the 2nd line of our 'instructions list' which read " _At 31 weeks, skin to skin is important for the baby, however they are still too immature to regulate their body heat, so they can only be out of the incubator for a few minutes at a time."_ Cat squinted at the paper, trying to read the small writing, before beaming a smile up at me.

I walked over to the incubator and opened it up, carefully picking Louie up and handing him to Cat as she lent back in her wheelchair slightly. She held the newborn to her shoulder and he was smaller than a bag of sugar from the grocers. Tiny toes peek from his blanket, dangling in air. His head, a thin film of brown curls slightly rubbed bald from lying in on his back, lays against her supporting hand. I can't believe how tiny new humans are, how vulnerable, how awe inspiring. "He's so perfect." She whispered.

"He's half of you, so of course he is." I smiled at her.

"You're such a flirt." She giggled, smiling down at Louie. "Hear that? Your Mommy's a flirt." She told him.

"'Mommy'" I repeated. "I don't think I'll ever get used to that."

"Do you want to hold him?" Cat asked as Louie re-adjusted himself in her arms. "You haven't had a proper chance yet, I feel like I'm hogging him."

I looked down at the two of them and felt a pang of longing in my heart to hold her. Cat noticed this and carefully held him out and towards me. I wrapped my arms around his small body and held him close to my chest. I wanted to drink this moment in, this moment with my little boy in my hands. He feels so light, looks so perfect and smells so divine. Cat and I are his protector for as long as we live and my love for him will last for all time. He opened his dark brown eyes and I felt them bore into my matching ones. First there was a moment of curiousness, squinting them like Cat had done only moments prior. Secondly there was worry. He couldn't smell his mother anymore and the warm arms that had held him only moments before were different to mine. The worry turned into panic as he screamed in a way that was heart rendering for all in earshot. "He hates me." I blurted out, lightly rocking him back and forth in my arms to calm him.

"No he doesn't." Cat replied calmly.

"What do I do then?" I said, panic filling my voice.

"Sing."

Her statement shocked me temporary, making me burst out with the first song that came to my mind. It may no longer purely fit the situation, but it is his song, so I started to sing the second verse and chorus.

 _"Things will be hard at times_  
 _But I've learned to try_  
 _Just listening patiently_

 _Oh Louie_  
 _Sweet baby_  
 _Oh Louie_  
 _He's beauty_  
 _Baby inside she loving_  
 _Oh Louie_  
 _You're beauty_  
 _Just like your mother_  
 _That's carrying"_

Louie's crying stopped almost automatically as I sung, as if he were listening to every word. His head was buried into my chest, supported by my hand. "I told you he doesn't hate you." Cat whispered. "And that song was beautiful."

"Just like you." I replied. "And him." I looked down at the tiny little being in my arms and slid my pinky into his open hand and watched as his fingers curled around it.

"Still a flirt." Cat giggled.

"I try my best."

* * *

No POV, a few hours later.

Cat had just been sent back to her room in the Coronary Care Unit to rest, as she hadn't actually been discharged from it yet, leaving Tori alone with Louie in the private room. Together they were waiting for Jade, Maria and Leo to come into the room to visit them, so Tori was sat in a chair she'd pulled up beside Louie's incubator, her hand stuck inside and rested under his little hand. "Come in!" Tori called out, cringing at herself as she released her yelling could have very easily woken Louie.

"Hey." Jade said, walking into the room. "How's he doing?"

"Good." Tori replied, carefully pulling her hand out of her sleeping son's incubator. "Where's Maria and Leo?"

"They went to check up on Cat." Jade explained. "I brought the stuff you asked for." She added, handing Tori the large duffel bag filled with various things that Tori had been longing for since going into the hospital.

"My phone!" Tori squealed happily, taking the Pearphone from the duffel bag pocket. "Oh crap." She muttered, her eyes darting to the sleeping baby, cheeking that she hadn't just awoken him.

"I'd look at that if I were you," Jade said, "You might get a nice surprise."

"A nice surprise?" Tori raised an eyebrow, turning on her phone to be faced with a page full of notifications. "Oh my God."

"When were you going to tell us you released a song?" Jade prodded, referring to the 101 notifications over the song recently posted to Tori's Youtube page.

"I... I didn't know." Tori gasped, turning on the app and looking at the millions of views under the video titled 'Tori Vega's first single, Make It In America'. "I completely forgot about that!"

"How can you forget you released a song?" Jade interrupted, her facial expression one of pure confusion.

"I had a meeting a few weeks ago," Tori started to explain, "that my first single would be released on October 1st. I completely forgot about it and well, that was yesterday so the company released it even though I was on leave for the birth." The half-latina continued to scroll though her phone, switching to different medias periodically to see the different reactions. "It's completely blown up." She said in awe.

"Number 1 on Youtube trending." Jade added. "You've got over 1 million Twitter followers already."

"Already?" Tori gasped again. "I mean, I had a few hundred thousand anyway from staying active since our interviews, and posting song covers and demos to it... but 1 million?"

"After how hard you've been working, you deserve this." Jade said honestly.

"Thank you." Tori smiled back.

"Don't mention it." Jade shrugged, walking over to Louie's incinerator to look at her Godson.

"Remember when we hated each other." Tori said randomly, Jade's kindness still slightly foreign to her.

"Going though an apocalypse changes people." Jade shrugged. "And it did help that Cat fell head over heels for you."

"We fell for each other." Tori said sappiliy, placing down her phone and copying Jade by walking up to Louie's incubator.

"I still can't believe you let me be his God-Mother." Jade mumbled. "I mean me, looking after a baby? I normally make them cry."

"You looked after Cat when I couldn't." Tori sighed. "You deserve to be it, and deserve to have your name in his."

"What?" Jade looked over at Tori quizzically. "Louie sounds nothing like Jade."

"Where do you think we got his middle name from?" Tori shook her head jokingly.

"His middle name?" Jade asked back, still confused.

"It's Jaden." Tori said slowly. "You didn't know? Cat did say it when he was born."

"You're serious right?" Jade asked, unable to find the right words to express herself.

"Look." Tori pointed to the small name label on the end of his Incubator. "'Louie Jaden Valentine-Vega.'" She read out.

"But-" Jade breathed out, all thoughts of guilt flashing back into her brain. "I almost killed him though."

"Jade stop it." Tori said back, a sent of sternness on her voice. "You want to know when we chose his middle name? It was after the fight. The fight in which you saved his life Jade. If you weren't there, than that-" Tori was about to use a list of profanity words, before remembering she was beside her son "- _Veronica_ could have very easily killed him, but she didn't. Because of you."

"I... I didn't think of it like that." Jade mumbled, unable to look Tori in the eyes.

"You really should, because you saving him was real. You 'nearly killing him' wasn't, because your fight was probably not the reason Cat's water broke. She was in pain for quite a few days remember, and we had a feeling it would be an early labour because of her small size." Tori explained. "It wasn't your fault Jade."

Suddenly, Jade's eyes drip with tears. Her walls, the walls that held her up, made her strong just... collapse. Moment by moment, they fell. Tori stepped forward, reached out and hugged her tightly, her arms as shields of comfort, a hug so warm yet so completely platonic. Everything Jade had kept inside her since the Cat's water broke were finally leaving her, the feelings of guilt washing away with it. Jade sobbed into her shoulder unceasingly, hands clutching at her jacket. Tori held her in silence, rocking her slowly as her tears soaked her shirt. It amazed her how soundly Louie was sleeping though the muffled cries of her dark haired friend.

After a few minutes, a tiny lapse let Jade pull away, blinking lashes heavy with tears. "I'm sorry." Jade sniffled, wiping her eyes on the cuff of her sleeve.

"Don't be." Tori said. "That's what friends are for."


	45. Chapter 45

2 Days Later (October 4th/ Day 230)

Cat was finally discharged from the The Coronary Care Unit, meaning that she was no longer limited to seeing Louie for only a few hours a day and instead could stay in his room overnight like Tori had been. However much they loved Louie, the side effects of having a baby were already starting to take a tole on the two girls, from Cat starting to periodically pump milk for Louie to drink through his tube to Tori being awoken multiple times in her sleep due to Louie's crying. Maria, Jade and Leo had been helping a lot, visiting as often as they could and even brought Raffa once (who'd decided to buy a baby grow that read 'If you think I'm cute, you should see my uncle' and immediately put Louie into it).

"This is such a relief." Cat smiled, slowly walking into Louie's room.

"No more moving between the wards." Tori added, her arm around Cat's waist to support her still sore girlfriend.

"Thank God." Cat said, sitting on a chair beside Louie's incubator. "Hey Louie, how're you feeling today?"

The small baby inside reached his arms aloft as if dreaming of cuddling the mother who stood so closely by. "Sleepy clearly." Tori replied for him.

"He's such a good baby already." Cat said in awe, resisting the urge to stick her hand into his incubator to hold him.

"Maria said that's what you were like too." Tori added. "I don't really know what I was like, maybe I was all crazy and loud."

"That's make sense." Cat jabbed jokingly.

"Oi!" Tori said dramatically.

"Love ya really Babe." Cat giggled, pulling herself up from her chair.

"Love ya too." Tori replied, leaning down and lightly pecking Cat's lips. Both girls could tell that the other wanted more, but in the NICU room with their newborn son was neither the place nor time for a heated make out session.

"I've got to pump now." Cat sighed, looking at the clock on the wall behind her. "Better to do it now before the boys come."

"I forgot they were visiting today." Tori spoke up as Cat walked over to the reclining chair in the corner of the room beside the breast pump. "You need any help?"

"I've got it." Cat said, removing her shirt to start the pumping process.

"I'll start to put your stuff away then." Tori said, opening Cat's suitcase and moving the clothes into a designated clothing wardrobe, along with her own clothes. As she was doing this Louie began to fret slightly, Tori folded the last of Cat's garments and went over to check her son. "What's up Louie?" She asked, picking up her son and rocking him slightly, before holding him closer to her face and sniffing. "I think he needs a diaper change." She said cringing, immediately regretting smelling him.

"I'm not doing it." Cat interrupted, still sat in the chair while pumping, a slightly uncomfortable look on her face. "Kinda preoccupied."

"But I've done it every time so far." Tori whined childishly

"Fine." Cat mumbled. "Bring him over here." Tori walked over to the reclining chair, where Cat was sat, and laid Louie onto her lap. "Pass me a diaper, wipes and baby powder." As commanded, Tori reached into a cupboard and pulled out a premie-sized diaper, wipes and a container filled with baby power and placed it on the small table top beside Cat's chair.

With the pump still attached to her, Cat carefully unbuttoned Louie's blue baby grow and pulled it up over his waist to reveal his diaper. With one hand, she removed the diaper while using the other to reach for wipes. After flinging the dirty diaper into the bin about 5ft away, Cat cleaned up Louie's bottom, carefully lifting his legs up in the process. "Powder." Cat said suddenly, holding her hand out for Tori to give it to her. Her girlfriend complied, handing her the bottle which Cat quickly used to powder his diaper area before shoving the bottle back into Tori's hands. Cat opened the new diaper with her right hand, while keeping Louie still with her left, before replacing it over his small body and pulling his baby grow back down.

"Damn." Tori breathed out, shocked over how fluently Cat managed to do all of that whilst still pumping. "That's multitasking at it's finest."

"What'd you expect I'd do?" Cat shot back, handing Louie back to Tori, while washing her hands with another baby wipe.

"I dunno, maybe not suddenly turn into Wonder Woman. How the hell did you even do that? It took me 4 attempts to do it my first time, and that was with a changing table." Tori expressed, lightly rocking Louie back to sleep.

"Says something there doesn't it." Cat giggled. "I'm just kidding, I've been practicing for a while."

"Practicing?" Tori asked back.

"I had a lot of free time while pregnant, and we brought diapers when I was like 5 months along." Cat shrugged.

"That's why the diaper bag was open." Tori said to herself, shaking her head.

"It paid off didn't it?" Cat giggled.

"True." Tori admitted, placing Louie back down into his incubator as his big brown eyes started closing again. "We've got this 'being parents' thing down pretty well now." She smiled, looking down at their son.

"Tell me that again in a few weeks when we're out of the NICU and don't have all this help anymore." Cat reminded.

A knock on the door interrupted them. Tori opened it and a nurse walked into the room, telling the girls that there were 3 boys waiting for them at the reception, before leaving again.

"Chiz, they're early." Tori muttered. "I'm glad they didn't just get sent up like Maria, Leo and Jade normally are. Wait, why do you think we've been called to go get them?"

"Probably because they have no blood relation." Cat shrugged. "Stall them until I'm done pumping please." Cat replied quickly, not wanting any of the boys to see her like that.

"Will do." Tori replied, opening the door and walking down the long hallway, past the main NICU room, and into the reception area. "Hey guys." She said to the three teenage boys, stood beside the receptionist desk.

"See, she does know us." Andre told the receptionist, pulling Tori into a friendly hug.

"If they visit again, then just send them down please." Tori told the receptionist.

"We had to be careful dear, there have been an awful lot of people trying to gain access to your room." The lady replied.

"A lot?" Tori said quizzically.

"You don't know about all the paparazzi downstairs?" Beck asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Paparazzi?" Tori repeated.

"There's a load by the main entrance." Andre explained. "Apparently they're all for you, but it didn't stop them from harassing us for like 10 minutes."

"I knew my new song had blown up, but not this much." Tori said to herself, starting to lead the boys down the hallway.

"How'd they even know where you are?" Robbie asked.

"Um..." Tori paused to think. "I mean, I posted a picture of Louie in his incubator on Instagram yesterday, to tell people why I was inactive. Maybe they could work out we were in a NICU from that." She gulped. "Man, social media is dangerous."

"You're telling me." Beck sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm still not allowed to talk about the movie online, in case I let any secrets out."

"Famous people problems." Robbie chuckled.

"You've got a few thousand followers still Rob." Beck reassured his curly haired friend.

"I haven't been able to congratulate you in person yet." Andre cut in, changing the subject back to Tori.

"Over the song or Louie?" Tori asked.

"Both." Andre replied. "The song's a hit, making its way up the charts, and Louie looks adorable from his photos."

"He's even cuter in real life." Tori gushed.

They reached the private room labelled 'Valentine-Vega' and Tori knocked on the door, opening it slightly and poking her head through so that Cat didn't have to yell back and potentially wake Louie. "You can come in." Cat replied.

"How you feeling Cat?" Andre asked, pulling the smaller girl into a hug.

"A little sore to be honest." Cat replied. "But it's all worth it."

The boys checked up on her for a few minutes, before turning to Louie's incubator. "There's my favourite Godson." Beck smiled, looking at the tiny baby in front of him.

"He's your only Godson." Andre reminded.

"One more than you've got." Beck shot back jokingly.

"Hey, don't make me feel bad for having to chose one of you." Cat cut in.

"It's alright, we all know Beck only got it 'cause of Jade." Robbie chuckled.

"No, it's 'cause I'm the best." Beck boasted, looking at the girls for reassurance, who both looked at each other awkwardly. "Right?"

"So what was the reason you had to go get the guys?" Cat asked, changing the subject to avoid awkward tension.

"Apparently, we have paparazzi." Tori replied.

"Really?" Cat replied, raising an eyebrow. "How famous are you?"

"Oh shush." Tori said back. "I've been staying offline mostly, that way I don't see any negative responses."

"There isn't any of that, I bet." Cat said, looking over to the boys. "Right?"

"Not over the song." Robbie replied honestly. "But... there's a lot of homophobic comments about how 'Having two mom's isn't right for a baby'." The two other boys gave Robbie a confused look over why he'd tell Tori and Cat about it, before focusing their attention towards the girls for their response.

"That was to be expected." Tori sighed. "There are some real-" She was going to use a word that was not suitable for a baby to hear, asleep or not, so instead the bleeped herself with humming "-people in this world. To be honest, I don't care what they have to say about my love life, that's my businesses and not theirs."

"Either way, Louie has got two two best Moms there are." Robbie replied, smiling between the two girls.

"That reminds me, Raffa wanted me to give you this." Andre spoke up, handing Tori a small light grey baby grow.

Tori unfolded it and read the black writing off of the torso section. "'One Mommy's Italian and the other's Latina. Of course I'm going to be loud.' That's so cute." She smiled, looking at the two little Puerto Rican flag beside and Italian one. "Where is he getting all of these baby grows?"

"I don't know." Robbie shrugged. "He just handed it to me this morning and told me to bring it to you."

"It has to be specially made." Cat said, also admiring the baby grow. "How many babies have two moms from Italy and Puerto Rico?"

"Ya never know." Andre shrugged.

"It's kinda ironic really, because he's actually been the quietest baby ever." Tori said

As if to prove Tori wrong, Louie started to fret around in his incubator a little. "Perfect timing there Little one." Beck chuckled.

"He's hungry." Cat replied, checking the time on the clock. "Anyone want to feed him?" She offered to the boys.

"You do know we can't produce milk right?" Robbie said awkwardly.

"Duh silly, or else I'd be making Tori pump instead." Cat replied jokingly, making Tori blush. She then opening one of the cupboards beside Louie's incubator to reveal a tiny fridge containing little plastic packets of slightly yellow liquid. "He's too young to feed properly, so he needs to drink though a tube." Cat explained, filling a small syringe with the milk.

"I'll have a go at feeding him then." Beck offered.

"Okay then, you need to sit on the reclining chair and tilt yourself back a little." Tori said, lifting Louie out of the incubator and onto Beck's lap once he did what she told him.

Cat walked over and attached the small syringe to Louie's feeding tube. "Support his hand with one hand and slowly push the syringe pump down."

Beck took the syringe in his left hand and help Louie's head up with his right. The small baby in his arms gulped and slurped until he syringe was empty, and then Beck started to lightly rub his back. "He's just so cute."

"If you ask Jade nicely then maybe you'll get one of your own soon." Tori joked.

"That'll be the day." Beck replied, still focused on his Godson. "Until then, I think we'll just enjoy spoiling this one."


	46. Chapter 46

Epilogue

That day did, eventually, happen. 8 years later to be exact, when Jasmine Caterina Oliver was brought into the world. Beck was by far the happiest man in on earth when he held his daughter in his arms for the first time, looking into her icy blue eyes and at the tufts of dark brown hair sprouting from her scalp.

A lot of screaming had brought them to this moment, including Jade threatening to make Beck give birth to the second baby (which he tried to explain was impossible but was cut off by Jade crushing his hand with her own as another contraction came about). Despite the pain, the day of Jasmine's birth certainly wasn't as hectic as Louie's, so it didn't take long before Jade and the baby where discharged and sent home with no complications at all.

Which brings us to the Oliver household in the centre of Miami, where Cat, Louie, Jade, Tori, Beck, Maria, Leo and Raffa were gathered, with baby Jasmine in Beck's arms.

"Uncle Beck!" A 8 year old Louie said, pulling onto his Godfather's shirt. "Can I hold her please?" He continued, looking up with his big brown eyes.

"You're still too little to hold her on your own." Tori spoke up to her son.

"Can you help me please then Mommy?" He asked his mom, spinning around to look at her.

"Sit over here." Jade told her excited Godson, tapping the empty space on the couch next to her. Louie looked at her with a confused expression, but never being one to disobey he followed her instructions and perched himself on the space next to Jade.

Beck understood what his wife was getting at and slowly lowered Jasmine onto Louie's lap. "Be careful and sit still okay?" He said protectively.

From beside the young boy, Jade held her arms out to help guide his hands under Jasmine so that he was holding her properly. "Hey Jasmine." Louie whisper-spoke. "I'm your God-Brother."

The sight of the two together was one of complete child purity, and everyone present was looking down at the pair with awe and love. Louie had grown so much over the last 8 years, looking more and more like Cat with every passing day. He would talk and smile constantly and when he did, the dimple on his left cheek would appear. That smile would light up his entire face, literally, since he has an adoring face of an angel's. From his dark hair that faded down to the top of his neck, with a fringe which was swept to he left of his face in a boy-band styles. He had skin the same colour as his Mamma's that olive colour without the effort of trying to get a tan. His eyes were still a bold-black/brown but somehow, like Tori, they shone with the light and emphasised every smile. At that moment, every ounce of his eye's focus was on the small baby in his arms, holding her like she was made of glass, always the gentle one.

"Look Cat." Tori nudged her elbow into her half-sleeping wife, who was slumped on he couch beside her, opposite their son and Goddaughter.

"W..what?" Cat yawned, not fully aware of everything around her. You see, Tori's first album completely skyrocketed, topping every chart imaginable and fully boosting her fame and as a result Cat's too. Unable to peruse singing, to stay at home with Louie, Cat went into fashion design instead. Tori's fame also boosting that popularity and making her clothing line one of the most predominant in the fashion industry. That was until last year after Tori had released her 3rd Album and decided to take a few years away from the limelight so that Cat could take a shot at singing. And boy did that go well. Similarly to Tori, Cat's album had broken various records and topped charts worldwide, but the tour aspect was really taking a tole on her, and the sudden plane ride to Florida (after her performance in Texas) for Jasmine's birth didn't help.

That is the problem with fame and fortune, your life becomes a very hectic one. This explains the lack of an appearance by Andre and Robbie. The former was currently performing in Germany for his 4th Album; and the latter was amidst performing the lead role in a new Broadway Show (which is a major step up from the tech-theatre he'd originally chosen to peruse).

Just focusing on Tori, Cat, Andre and Robbie would be unfair. The new parents where equally as well known in the world of showbiz. Firstly there was Beck, who had 28 wins and 30 nominations for various awards to do with his acting skills, including a few from shows and movies written by Jade herself. That's right, Jade's career also took of, with her writing everything from romance movies to action packed TV shows (and even a few describing their time during the apocalypse). However, horror movies would always be her speciality.

Their personal lives had also been that of activity, both couples now (obviously) being married. Beck had proposed to Jade a year after graduating High School, and were married in the following summer. It was a beautiful beach wedding in the Maldives, white sand, blue waters, and a roughly made sand-castle from the toddler-aged Louie and his uncles. At the end of the night, Jade threw back to bouquet to all the un-married women in attendance, and Tori caught it (well it actually hit her on the head and then fell into her arms.)

Which leads to Tori and Cat's wedding. January 6, 2015 was when Cat proposed, well it wasn't fully intentional, it was more like Cat squealing in joy as same-sex marriage was finally legalised in Florida. " _TORI! WE CAN FINALLY GET MARRIED!_ " The girl yelled, spinning around happily as the TV blasted the news.

" _Is that you proposing?"_ Tori chuckled jokingly, walking into the room with a 2 year old Louie in her arms.

" _I..."_ Cat stuttered before dropping to one knee. " _Yes. Will you marry me?"_

Similarly to Jade and Beck, their wedding was elegant and quaint, beautiful and lively. A day to remember forever. With Louie being the ring boy, the Vega-Valentine family all had a major part in the events. They were finally one, finally together forever.

All in all, the gang of 'Apocalypse survives' had really made names for themselves now and were enjoying every minute of it, after all they'd been through, they really deserved it. To quote J.K Rowling from the end of the Harry Potter books, ' _All was well'._

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 **I hope you enjoyed this fic, and sorry for the abrupt ending but I was kinda running out of ideas for the story progression and felt that 8 weeks was long enough to spend on a story.**

 **Either way, reviews are much appreciated :D**


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